Fitch Foundation 2005 Grant Awards

The James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation announces three 2005 Mid-Career Grant Awards

New York, June 20, 2006 – Mary Dierickx, Chair of the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation, announced on behalf of the Foundation’s trustees three mid-career research grant awards for 2005. “The Foundation is delighted to award not only the prestigious Kress Mid-Career Grant, but also to award two Fitch Research Grants,” stated Dierickx. “The outstanding quality of these applications and a generous gift from one of our trustees, made these additional grant awards possible.”

Gregory Free was awarded the 2005 Kress Mid-Career Grant for his project, American Gulf: An Architectural Story. This grant will allow Free to study the architecture of the American Gulf Coast and define a context for the region’s domestic architecture, stretching from Matamoros, Mexico to Key West, Florida. Free is President of Gregory Free & Associates, an Austin, Texas design firm specializing in historic preservation.

Gregory Free completed a great deal of his primary documentary research prior to Hurricane Katrina in September, 2005. Now his photographs are among the last documentary evidence of some of the region’s most important buildings and sites. Understanding of the unique Gulf Coast culture created through the synthesis of centuries of European and African tradition and the architecture it produced will be critical to the preservation and restoration of the buildings lost in Hurricane Katrina.

The 2005 Fitch Research Grants were awarded to Susannah C. Drake for her study, Campus Landscapes of Beatrix Farrand, and Alison Isenberg for her study, Second-hand Cities, Antiques Districts, and Salvage Shops: Finding the Popular Past in a Modern Century. Drake’s project will include a graphic and narrative analysis of Beatrix Farrand’s planning and landscape design work at Princeton University, Yale University, and the University of Chicago. Drake is Principal of dLandstudio in New York City. Isenberg’s study will focus on the role of antique dealers and the second-hand market in helping to create the preservation mindset of the later twentieth century. It examines the people, markets, and business districts that dealt in old artifacts between the 1920s and 1970s in the decades before historic preservation became mainstream. Isenberg is an Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University.

The James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation, founded in 1988, was established to recognize the unique contribution of Dr. Fitch to the field of historic preservation in the United States. The purpose of the foundation is to advance the study and practice of preservation by supporting preservation endeavors through a research grant program as well as publications, seminars and lectures.

James Marston Fitch The James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation c/o Neighborhood Preservation Center 232 East 11th Street New York, New York 10003 Phone: 212-252-6809 Fax: 212-471-9987 info@fitchfoundation.or	The James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation announces three 2005 Mid-Career Grant Awards New York, June 20, 2006 – Mary Dierickx, Chair of the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation, announced on behalf of the Foundation’s trustees three mid-career research grant awards for 2005. “The Foundation is delighted to award not only the prestigious Kress Mid-Career Grant, but also to award two Fitch Research Grants,” stated Dierickx. “The outstanding quality of these applications and a generous gift from one of our trustees, made these additional grant awards possible.” Gregory Free was awarded the 2005 Kress Mid-Career Grant for his project, American Gulf: An Architectural Story. This grant will allow Free to study the architecture of the American Gulf Coast and define a context for the region’s domestic architecture, stretching from Matamoros, Mexico to Key West, Florida. Free is President of Gregory Free & Associates, an Austin, Texas design firm specializing in historic preservation. Gregory Free completed a great deal of his primary documentary research prior to Hurricane Katrina in September, 2005. Now his photographs are among the last documentary evidence of some of the region’s most important buildings and sites. Understanding of the unique Gulf Coast culture created through the synthesis of centuries of European and African tradition and the architecture it produced will be critical to the preservation and restoration of the buildings lost in Hurricane Katrina. The 2005 Fitch Research Grants were awarded to Susannah C. Drake for her study, Campus Landscapes of Beatrix Farrand, and Alison Isenberg for her study, Second-hand Cities, Antiques Districts, and Salvage Shops: Finding the Popular Past in a Modern Century. Drake’s project will include a graphic and narrative analysis of Beatrix Farrand’s planning and landscape design work at Princeton University, Yale University, and the University of Chicago. Drake is Principal of dLandstudio in New York City. Isenberg’s study will focus on the role of antique dealers and the second-hand market in helping to create the preservation mindset of the later twentieth century. It examines the people, markets, and business districts that dealt in old artifacts between the 1920s and 1970s in the decades before historic preservation became mainstream. Isenberg is an Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University. The James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation, founded in 1988, was established to recognize the unique contribution of Dr. Fitch to the field of historic preservation in the United States. The purpose of the foundation is to advance the study and practice of preservation by supporting preservation endeavors through a research grant program as well as publications, seminars and lectures.