Award

The VCPA is a local group dedicated to the preservation of our local "Wild West" buildings and heritage. They are behind the historical reenactments during the summer weekends (come see the hanging of George Ives, fun for the whole family), the two Grand Victorian Balls (after the first of which St. Paul's does a Holy Eucharist from the 1789 BCP) and various other events.

They also keep a close eye out for people who work to preserve our buildings and history and, once a year, hold an awards ceremony for those people deserving of such.

But this is also an insular area and people tend to be wary of outsiders and what they might do to that history . . . like, refurbishing an old house to make it "modern and up to date." People here don't like modern and up to date. I hadn't been here six months when I heard that I had won an award for my work at St. Paul's in VC (if you remember, the church that needed new carpet). In actuality, it was an award for doing nothing to the building.

While I was appropriately gracious, it felt a little like, "Welcome to the neighborhood; don't mess with our stuff."

But things have changed in the last five years.

Last night I accepted an award from the VCPA given to Christ Church. First, CC is not in VC, so it would appear that the VCPA is beginning to expand their vision. Second, I have apparently been here long enough, and done enough good things, that people are no longer scared that the outsider will run roughshod over local history.

Over the past three years, CC has re-roofed the building, installed a new bell tower, and completed a paint job (go here and scroll down to see what's been done). For all of these efforts, the members of the VCPA decided that we were deserving of an award recognizing our commitment to preserving the local history.

We still have things to do (a major stained glass window preservation project needs to be undertaken and, good lord, we need to get rid of our 1974 brown & gold indoor-outdoor all-purpose carpet); but it's nice to be recognized for work we have done, and nice to know that people finally realize that I didn't come here to eliminate their history but to add to it.