On October 12, Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, presented Bill Ferris and Ann Abadie of the Center and architect Thomas S. Howorth with a 1995 Honor Award for the restoration of Barnard Observatory. In his remarks about the Honor Award, the first given to a Mississippi project, Moe praised the restoration of the observatory and the adaptive reuse of the building.
"Built as a structure from which to study the stars and now used as a facility from which to study Southern culture, Barnard Observatory serves as a prime example of how adaptive reuse can bring vibrant new life to old buildings," Moe said. "We can scarcely imagine what it would be like for its original creators to see what time and innovation have done."
Chancellor Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard built the observatory in 1857-59 as the keystone of his plans for making the University a world-renowned center for teaching and research in the sciences as well as the liberal arts. For his observatory Barnard commissioned Alvin Clark of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to build a telescope with the world's largest lens. The Civil War destroyed Barnard's plans, however, and he became head of Columbia University and his telescope ended up at Northwestern's Dearborn Observatory. The observatory in Oxford served as a hospital for both Confederate and Union troops during the Civil War, provided a residence for University chancellors for more than a century, and has housed several academic departments.
Barnard Observatory has been home to the Center since 1979, and its restoration and renovation were complete in 1992 after two years of work and more than a decade of fund raising. The restoration and renovation project, directed by Tom Howorth, was funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities challenge grant of $600,000 and matching contributions of more than $2,400,000 from the state of Mississippi, the Phil Hardin Foundation, CREATE Foundation, the Freedom Forum, Southern Progress Corporation, and other donors.
"Today, the Center is seen as a model for institutions that seek to preserve their culture," Ferris said. "We are truly grateful that the National Trust has bestowed upon us this honor." Abadie echoed those thanks and added that the Honor Award not only recognized the Center's efforts to restore historic Barnard Observatory, one of three surviving antebellum buildings on the University campus, but also noted its preservation work elsewhere.
Abadie cited the Center's work to help save Vicksburg's Saint Francis Convent, whose oldest building dates back to 1830. The Center worked with local officials to establish the Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation, which ultimately purchased the property and hopes to turn it into a historical museum, educational center, inn, and conference hall. Other current historic preservation projects supported by the Center include an antebellum school building in Holly Springs, Bass School in Greenville, and the railroad depot in Oxford.
On hand for the awards presentation ceremony in Fort Worth were several Mississippians, including Center advisory board members Al and Libby Hollingsworth, staff members of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and Ole Miss alumnus Dan Jordan, who accepted the award presented to Monticello and Mount Vernon. Among those who joined the group for a dinner celebration were Peter Brink of the National Trust and Susan Kidd and John Hildreth of the NTHP Southern Office.