Round Table Discussion: Preserving A Town’s Culture Through a Historic District
Linden Place Museum, 500 Hope Street, Bristol, RI
May 31, 2025, 10am
Free, registration required
Walking Tour: This Would Not Be Here but for the HDC
Departs from the Bristol Historical & Preservation Society, 48 Court St., Bristol, RI
May 31, 2025, 1pm
Free, registration required
Sponsored by:
The Lombard J. Pozzi Center for Historic Preservation Education
The Bristol Historical & Preservation Society
New England Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art
Andreozzi Architecture
Now more than 35 years old, Bristol’s local Historic District Commission has had a major impact on the town’s historic core. Yet even with this lengthy history, its value is not always fully understood by local residents. How does the HDC protect property? How does it curate our historic resources? Why is appearing before it so stressful?
Join the Lombard J. Pozzi Center for Historic Preservation at the Bristol Historical & Preservation and its partners, the New England Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art and Andreozzi Architecture, for a round table discussion that explains how Bristol’s HDC came to be and why it is of value to historic small towns like Bristol. Panelists, all former HDC commissioners, will tell the tales of their best and most interesting moments while serving on the HDC, as well as their lessons learned. They will also offer their thoughts on the future of Bristol’s historic buildings and National Register district. The roundtable will be moderated by Bristol Historical & Preservation Society Director Dr. Catherine Zipf.
The round table will be followed at 1pm by a “This Would Not Be Here” walking tour. The tour will visit local buildings that were affected by HDC intervention in order to understand how the HDC operates and why its decisions are so important to Bristol’s historic resources.
The panelists will be:
Dr. Kevin Jordan
Kevin Jordan was the first Director of the Historic Preservation Program in 1976 at Roger Williams University, a position he held until his retirement. He has also been a past President and Board Member of the Coggeshall Farm Museum and the Bristol Historical & Preservation Society, and was the Treasurer of the Bristol Statehouse Foundation. He was also the first Director of the Friends of Linden Place. In 1986, he was appointed by the Town as Chair of the Historic District Study Committee, which wrote the proposed ordinance that was accepted by the Town of Bristol. He then served as the first Chair of the Commission.
David Andreozzi
David Andreozzi, a past Bristol Historic District Commission chairperson and founder of Andreozzi Architecture, specializes in historically based residential architecture expressive of its sense of place, attentive to its detail and proportion, and timeless in its beauty. Commissions exist from Commonwealth Avenue, to the shores of New England, to the Bahamian Islands. He is currently on boards of both Lutyens Trust America and the New England Institute of Classical Architecture & Art. David is currently spearheading a new movement, Architectural Delight, hoping to educate the public on the importance of culturally responsible design with a connectivity to people, history, and place irrespective of style. Before this, David was AIA’s National Chair of CRAN, the AIA’s Custom Residential Architects Network.
Andrew Teitz
A partner in the law firm of Ursillo, Teitz & Ritch, Ltd, and an AICP-certified Professional Planner, Andrew M. Teitz has been recognized as one of the Best Lawyers in America® in Land Use and Zoning Law. Mr. Teitz has drafted state enabling legislation on zoning and land development and dozens of municipal land use ordinances. He represents the Historic District Commissions in East Greenwich, South Kingstown, and Bristol, where his representation dates back to 1987. He also represents private clients before other municipal historic district commissions and is a frequent speaker on historic preservation law.
Eric Hertfelder
Eric Hertfelder is a Bristol resident and former member of the Historic District Commission who has served as Executive Director of the R.I. Historical Preservation Commission, Blithewold Mansion Gardens and Arboretum in Bristol, and Fort Adams Historic Site in Newport. Now retired, he volunteers for various historical organizations and museums.
Catherine Zipf
Award-winning architectural historian Dr. Catherine W. Zipf studies the underdogs (and the elites when they were underdogs) of American architectural history. With an interest in race and gender, Zipf reconstructs lost or overlooked histories, providing a new, often surprising, viewpoint on the traditional narrative. Recent projects include Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, a book that examines Wright’s career before the construction of Fallingwater, and The Architecture of the Negro Travelers’ Green Book, a public catalogue of Green Book sites. She currently serves as Director of the Bristol Historical & Preservation Society, in Bristol, RI
The round table will be held at 10am Linden Place Museum at 500 Hope Street, Bristol, RI. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Participants can register online at BHPSri.org.
The walking tour will leave at 1pm from the Bristol Historical & Preservation Society, 48 Court St., Bristol, RI. It is also free and open to the public, with registration required. Participants can register online at BHPSri.org
For more information, visit the Bristol Historical & Preservation Society at BHPSri.org, email info@BHPSri.org, or call 401-253-7223.
CONTACT:
Chelsea Johnston, (401) 253-7223, chelsea@bhpsri.org