13 years ago, Dexter Guerrieri and noted preservationist Everett Ortner co-founded Preservation Volunteers.
Every summer since, PV has brought French volunteers to the U.S. The volunteers cooperate with U.S.-based preservationists to help preserve our historic buildings and monuments.
This year’s projects at Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum and Green-Wood Cemetery were covered in a terrific article in France-Amerique magazine.
From the article (in English):
Everett Ortner, a francophile conservationist, now deceased, founded [Preservation Volunteers] with Dexter Guerrieri, its current president. After a trip and an encounter with the members of Rempart, who rehabilitate the country’s historic monuments on a volunteer basis, these two men decided to create Preservation Volunteers on the model of Rempart.
“For Everett Ortner, there was no equivalent [to Rempart] in the United States – it was sorely lacking…Hence we started welcoming French volunteers, to do the same as they were doing in Europe. We often have American volunteers, but bringing French volunteers over has remained a tradition. It’s a means of cross-cultural exchange,” explained [the volunteer director.]
Read the rest of the article (in French) here.
