A Virtual Lecture Series: Historic Preservation and Oakwood Cemetery Lecture

2/9/2021

Center for Cultural Landscape Preservation Announces Lecture Series

The ESF Center for Cultural Landscape Preservation and ESF Friends of Oakwood have announced A Virtual Lecture Series: Historic Preservation and Oakwood Cemetery

and topic dates are:

Topic: Oakwood & The Rural Cemetery Movement, 7 p.m. Feb. 18.

Click https://syracuseuniversity.zoom.us/j/96622105437 to join the presentation.

Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus, George Curry, presents Oakwood Cemetery through the lens of its original designed landscape influenced by the mid-nineteenth century Rural Cemetery Movement. Learn how the design of Oakwood integrated art and nature, and produced what in essence was Syracuse's first public park.

Topic: The Past and Future of Cemeteries, 7 p.m. March 18

Click https://syracuseuniversity.zoom.us/j/96622105437 to join the presentation

David Charles Sloane, Ph.D., professor at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California (and Syracuse University alumnus) will lead a discussion on the past and future of cemeteries, based upon his two books, "The Last Great Necessity: Cemeteries in American History" and "Is the Cemetery Dead?" One of its superintendent's four sons, Sloane literally grew up inside Oakwood Cemetery, living in the house that faces Comstock Avenue and working to maintain the graves, monuments, and cemetery landscape. Presenting examples of current memorial trends and funeral practices — including "green burials" and movable or virtual memorials — Sloane will ask us to consider what the future life of cemeteries may be.

Topic: So Oakwood is Landmarked - What Does That Mean?, 7 p.m. April 8. Click https://syracuseuniversity.zoom.us/j/96622105437 to join the presentation.

Oakwood Cemetery is listed in the New York state and National Registers of Historic Places and is a ocal Protected Site under the city of Syracuse Landmark Preservation Ordinance. John Auwaerter and Rachel Leibowitz will talk about the programs and regulations — the "carrots and sticks" — that come with these designations.

Topic: What are the Guidelines for Preserving a Historic Cemetery Landscape?, 7 p.m. May 6. Click https://syracuseuniversity.zoom.us/j/96622105437 to join the presentation

What are the best practices for managing change in the Oakwood landscape so that its historic character is conserved for future generations? Auwaerter will discuss how the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties provide a sound approach to preserving Oakwood Cemetery.