Points of Interest
The addition last December of Preston Park in Butler Township brings to 11 the number of Butler County sites in the National Register of Historic Places.
David Zarnick, a Butler Township commissioner, said the municipality hired consultant Mike Gimigliano of Butler to conduct the 16-month Register application process. The park is the site of the former laboratory and home of English-American glass scientist Frank Preston.
Gimigliano, who describes himself as a semiretired archaeologist and cultural resources consultant, said the first step was convincing Pennsylvania's State Historic Preservation Office in Harrisburg to forward the request to the federal Register.
“I did research into Preston's documents, photography, floor plans, the drafting of a map,” said Gimigliano. “To get on the Register is a serious honor.”
Keith Heinrich, historic preservation specialist with the state preservation office, said, “Basically in Pennsylvania, we have sort of two-part process. “
“The first part is an interested party, whether a property owner or historic group or individual or any group or individual, they will submit a historic resource survey form,” said Heinrich. That form “gives us preliminary information of the property, along with photos and mapping.”
“Our staff will review it, and give our opinion as to whether the property would be eligible for the National Register,” Heinrich said.
There are four criteria the federal program considers when judging an applicant, Heinrich said:• Association with historic event or pattern of events• Association with a significant person in history, either on a local, state or national level• The design and construction of the building itself is of architectural significance• The property itself has information potential as an archaeological site.In the case of Preston Park, Heinrich said, “Preston was a really significant person in glass-testing quality control. He worked for places like Corning, and he was a really significant person in that industry.“Generally, we look for properties associated for their productive lives.”Gimigliano said, “The man was incredible. He was born in England in 1896. He ended up in Butler in 1922. He started his own business in 1926 in a little ramshackle building next to the Connoquenessing Creek.”“In 1936, he started work on the lab in Butler Township,” said Gimigliano. “He moved in and was operating as the bricks were going up.”
Preston and his wife moved into a three-story apartment above the lab in 1947. He lived on the property until his death in 1989.“He brought in Hayes Perkins from the Hearst estate in San Simeon, Calif., to lay out the English garden which is still in existence,” said Gimigliano.Gimigliano said Preston's widow, Jane, willed the property to the township for use as a park upon her death in 2008.Heinrich said it takes the state preservation office about a month to review an application.Heinrich said the next step in the process is for the application to go before the state historic preservation board, which meets three times a year to consider Register requests.“It's part of the federal requirements. The board discusses whether the application meets National Register criteria or not,” said Heinrich.If approved, the application is sent to the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C.Butler Township's application had all its t's crossed and i's dotted, said Zarnick.“We were quite excited,” Zarnick said. “We flew through the process the first time. We sailed through it. Our paperwork was done so well, they passed it on to the federal level.”The National Register is administered by the National Park Service, which is part of the Department of the Interior, said Patrick Andrus, an historian with the Register.
“Once we get a nomination, we have a 45-day review period. We put a notice in the Federal Register and invite public comment.“We collect data and perform a review and take final action.”In the Preston case, the property gained admission to the Register on Dec. 26, 2012.It joins the Register's 88,441 other listings of historical buildings and places, said Andrus.“In the last fiscal year, we got 1,176 nominations,” Andrus said, the vast majority of which were approved.Andrus said one misconception about the Register is that inclusion restricts what an owner can do with the property.“They assume the higher the level of government involvement, the greater the restrictions on their use or enjoyment of the property,” said Andrus. “Any control on the properties comes from local preservation ordinances.“Our listing is an honorific. It doesn't impose any restrictions as long as they are not using federal funds,” Andrus said.The Register doesn't even issue the iconic blue plaques that denote a property is on the national listing.“Those plaques are not issued by us. They are privately sold. They get made by private foundries. There are a lot of plaques out there, but a listing on the National Register does not get you a plaque.”Zarnick said Preston Park has a plaque mounted at its entrance.And the man who shepherded the 88-acre property through the process knows what he wants to be the 12th county property to gain inclusion on the federal list of historic properties.“The original Bantam jeep factory. It's just waiting for somebody to make an application,” consultant Gimigliano said.
<b>Name - Date - Listed Location</b>Harmony Historic District - March 21, 1973 - Route 68, HarmonyJohn Roebling House - Nov. 13, 1976 - Roebling Park along Rebecca Street, SaxonburgPassavant House - April 11, 1977 - 243 S. Main St., ZelienopleButler County Courthouse - Sept. 15, 1977 - South Main and Diamond Streets, ButlerSen. Lowrie House - May 1, 1979 - West Diamond and South Jackson Streets, ButlerElm Court - Dec. 6, 1979 - Between Polk and Elm Streets, ButlerButler Armory - July 12, 1991 - 216 N. Washington St., ButlerButler County National Bank - Nov. 7, 1995 - 302 S. Main St., Butler now Lafayette ApartmentsSaxonburg Historic District - Feb. 14, 2003 - Portions of East and West Main, North and South Rebecca, North and South Isabella, Pittsburgh, Butler and State StreetsButler Historic District - May 29, 2003 - Bounded by Church, Walnut, Franklin and Wayne StreetsPreston Park - Dec. 26, 2012 - 415 S. Eberhart Road, Butler Township<br></br><br></br>
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