PRESERVATION ENTHUSIAST PLANS FOR COUNTY LANDMARKS GROUP

John Bry has a passion for preserving America's architectural heritage.

A senior in the historic preservation program at Southeast Missouri State University, Bry is starting a new preservation-minded group to serve Jackson and rural Cape Girardeau County.

The new group, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Jackson and Rural Cape Girardeau County, will hold its first meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Jackson Public Library. Interested persons are invited to attend.

Frank Nickell, director of the Center for Regional History at the university, and Bonnie Stephenoff, a new member of the historic preservation faculty at Southeast, will speak about ways the group can work to save this region's history.

"This is a new historic preservation group that is different from the one established in Jackson," said Bry.

The established group, the Jackson Heritage Association, owns and operates the Oliver House as a museum and preserves records of the town's history.

In contrast, the foundation, said Bry, plans to seek grants and funding to educate people about historic preservation as an economic tool and provide a resource for those seeking to restore old buildings.

The non-profit group is designed to protect, document and interpret Jackson's and rural Cape Girardeau County's "significant historical" resources, he said.

Bry said the new group's similar to one he helped form two years ago in his home county of Champaign, Ohio.

"My parents are living there," said Bry, who serves on the board of the Champaign County Preservation Alliance.

He said the organization was formed there about two years ago after a house was demolished that had been a part of the underground railroad and was eligible to be a national landmark. The house was torn down by a car dealer for a parking lot, said Bry.

There's a need for a local organization similar to the one in Ohio, he said.

"I know a lot of the smaller towns in the county like Old Appleton, Gordonville and Allenville, all have an interest in preserving their heritage but they don't necessarily have a group to turn to, to help them do that," said Bry.

"I think there are buildings all over the county that are probably in danger of being torn down. I don't think it's necessarily because people want it to happen, but they may not know what to do with them," he said.

In addition, people who are restoring old houses need a resource for information on everything from historic paint colors of the 1890s to historical type wallpapers.

Bry said the foundation might look at rehabilitating an old building for use as the group's office.

Another idea involves restoring an old school house and opening it up for schools to hold classes there from time to time.

That's done in Marshall, Mich. "They rent it out to schools and schools come from as far away as Detroit to use that school," he said.

Bry said the Landmarks Foundation is not intended to compete with the Jackson Heritage Association, but rather serve more as an extension of existing preservation efforts.

"I think people here are interested in preserving the buildings, but they never have been really educated about how buildings like this can be an economic stimulus for the city," said Bry.

In his hometown of Urbana, Ohio, population 10,000, a historic home and garden tour attracts more than 4,000 people, he pointed out.

"The big preservation movement right now is in the East and the upper Midwest and it's slowly moving this way," said Bry.

Historic buildings are more than architectural monuments; they are a part of the look of a community.

Demolition of such buildings means more than the loss of architectural heritage, he said.

"When you start going parking lot crazy, your town starts getting a toothless look."