Heritage Consulting Inc.'s Historic Preservation Experience

Over the last 19 years, Heritage Consulting’s principal Donna Ann Harris has started, grown, merged, partnered and dissolved non-profit preservation-based organizations throughout her career as either a principal or advisor. Her sensitivity to the human element of the non-profit enterprise makes her uniquely suited to work with emerging or sophisticated organizations seeking new ways to accomplish their organizational missions, both now and in the future. See Donna's vita here. 

We have developed a variety of workshops and consultations for historic sites, see our 2024 version of workshops and consultations for historic sites here. 

We  have completed the second edition of our 2007 book published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers/AASLH New Solutions for House Museums:  Ensuring the Long Term Preservation of America's Historic Houses. This book is the best seller in the American Association for State and Local History series, as we understand it from AASLH since its publication in 2007. The new book was published in November 2020. We also have a chapter in Reimagining Historic House Museums  published in 2019  about the role of the Board in historic site management. 

Key projects included:a 160 page, full color, lavishly illustrated with plans, drawings, photos and historic maps, Design Guidelines for Haddon Heights NJ Historic Preservation Commission.  We also won the Preservation New Jersey Historic Preservation Commission award for this publication in 2021.  In June 2022 the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia named this as this publicaiton their Preservation Education Award winner. 

We were coauthor with Sheri Stuart, State coordinator for Oregon Main Street of the 65 page illustrated handbook for the Oregon Main Street called Increasing Your Main Street’s Financial Stability:  Turning Supporters into Donors was completed in July 2021

 

In 2023 we won the David Knights New Preservation Iniititives Award from Preservation New Jersey for the City of Camden Heritage Tourism Interactive Touch Screen Display Wall. In 2024 we won the Preservation Education Award from the PreservationAlliance for Greater Philadelphia for the same project. 

An Assessment of Heritage Tourism Potential for the Benjamin Cooper Tavern, in Camden NJ for the Camden County Historical Society and for the Historical Society of Hamilton Township NJ. two projects:  An Heritage Tourism Assessment for the Isaac Pearson House, and an Incubation Grant from the New Jersey Council on the Humanities.  In the last year we consulted with two organizations to help them hire high quality executive directors for their downtown or business improvement district organizations. 

In 2020 we completed a heritage tourism assessment of the Olde Stone House Village in Washington Township, Gloucester County NJ. We completed work on a Revolving Fund Feasibility Study for the Columbus Ohio Landmarks Foundation with collaborator and friend A, Elizabeth Watson of Heritage Strategies LLC. For Historic Denver we completed a feasibility study for a Revolving Loan Fund in 2024.  We wrote two successful grants for a Heritage Tourism Interactive Touch Screen Kiosk for City Hall Camden which will be installed in 2021. Finally the second edition of New Solutions for House Museums was published.

In 2019 we won the Grand Jury Award from the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia for the Camden County Heritage Tourism Plan. See the colorful map and guide and final report about the project. We worked with 49 history organizations for 18 months to create Camden County History Week, thematic tour routes, and evaluate the project.

In 2018 we produced design guidelines for three Delaware downtown. See the Laurel Design Guide here.  See Milford DE Deign Guide here and Seaford Design Guide here. 

Heritage Consulting Inc. has undertaken a variety of stateside and national projects for state agency clients to identify trends or present opportunities. In 2017 we completed a national research project for Oregon Heritage, the state preservation agency which identified more than 150 direct state, county or local grants for preservation activities as well as state financial incentives. We completed a 40 page report with 22 profiles of noteworthy projects and a spreadsheet of 150 grants and incentive programs.

Heritage Consulting Inc. has conducted audience research projects (surveys, focus groups, interviews) for preservation organizations including Historic Annapolis, the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, Glover Fulling Mill Park in Haddon Heights NJ, St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Burlington NJ, Jacobs Chapel and Colemantown Meeting House in Mt. Laurel NJ, Main Street Lansing IA, the Friends of the Jacobus Vanderveer House in Bedminster NJ, Delaware County (PA) Planning Commission, Preservation New Jersey, Pinelands Preservation Alliance NJ and the Whitesbog Preservation Trust NJ.

Heritage Consulting Inc. has also completed extensive consumer and stakeholder surveys for downtown clients. 

We enjoy working with historic sites on Strategic Plans such as the Barrow Mansion Development Corporation in Jersey City NJ.

We have completed Strategic plans for downtown revitalization clients such as Roxborough Development Corporation in Philadelphia PA, Metuchen NJ Downtown Alliance, Destination Ardmore (DBA Ardmore Initiative) in Ardmore PA, the Tacony Community Development Corporation in Philadelphia PA,  the Siloam Springs AR Main Street, the North Fifth Street Revitalization Project in Olney in Philadelphia PA, Ortonville MI Downtown Development Authority, and Downtown Howell/DDA Main Street Howell MI. The firm has completed extensive Strategic Plans for seven Main Street New Jersey communities (Metuchen, Lawrenceville, West Orange, Vineland, Somerville, Montclair, and Highland Park).

The firm is well known for its wide variety of fundraising topics at national and state conferences. We enjoy providing board training for historic sites and preservation organizations.

View other pages on our website to see the variety of projects we undertake for clients all over the country.  Update April 2024