Podcast 108: Setting up Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park with Chris Collins

The Preservation Technology Podcast Episode 108

Catherine Cooper speaks with Superintendent Chris Collins about the establishment of Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park

The Preservation Technology Podcast is a series about the people and projects that bring innovation to preservation. Read articles based on episodes, listen, or subscribe. This podcast is produced by the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT).

Mural of Riverboat Life at Ste Genevieve National Historical Park

National Park Service

Ste Genevieve National Historical Park

Catherine Cooper: My name's Dr. Catherine Cooper. I am with Superintendent Chris Collins from Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park for today's podcast. Chris, thank you so much for joining us.

Chris Collins: Oh, Catherine. Thank you so much for having me.

Catherine Cooper: Tell us about Ste. Genevieve and how it became a National Park. It's relatively new. Isn't it?

Chris Collins: Very new. Yes. I will tell you a little bit about the town and a little bit about the National Park Service in town. Ste. Genevieve Missouri is a small farming town in the middle Mississippi River Valley. It's about 60 miles southeast of St. Louis, with a very long history. In fact, it's the oldest European settlement in present day Missouri founded by French Canadian settlers sometime around 1750. Ste. Genevieve's claim to fame is that it contains the largest extent collection of a rare form of French Colonial vertical log architecture. In fact, it's the largest collection in the United States and maybe even in North America.

So the story of Ste. Genevieve and the National Park Service goes back several decades. And so I had to put a lot of thought into all of those interactions. And it really started back in the 1930s with Charles Peterson. He was a historic architect for the Park Service and as a part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal initiatives, he and his team started the Historic American Building Survey program, or the HABS program, which documented America's architectural heritage.

And so Peterson and his team spent a lot of time in Ste. Genevieve documenting the houses that we are aware of to this day. And that was the Park Service’s first venture in Ste. Genevieve. Then in the 1950s, another Park Service employee by the name of Ernest Connelly, worked with The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America to help with the first restoration of any of the historic homes in Ste. Genevieve and that was the Bolduc House. Sometime in the 1970s, the US Army Corps of Engineers conducted an archeological survey of the Old Town site and that's approximately three miles Southeast of the current town site. The town was moved sometime after 1785 after a series of horrific floods all but destroyed the Old Town site. The research by the US Army Corps of Engineers and their findings sparked the interest of the National Park Service.

And in 1978, the National Park Service set out on a reconnaissance survey to determine if there was national significance, suitability, feasibility, and a management requirement to set up a unit of the National Park Service in Ste. Genevieve. And I believe in 1980, that report was completed and delivered to Congress and the findings were to move forward at some point with a special resource study to extrapolate on their findings, to really get to the heart of whether or not it made sense for a National Park Service unit here in Ste. Genevieve. After 1980, the Park Service didn't have a huge hand in Ste. Genevieve until the 2000s.

In 1985, the HABS survey received additional funding. They came back and they updated some of the work that they started in the 1930s. And then we see in 1993, there was a massive flood in Ste. Genevieve. It threatened several of the historic houses here, and that really brought national attention to the city and the need to preserve the town. It resurrected a new wave of preservation that really took hold in the town throughout the 1990s and 2000s. And through those efforts, we see this renewed interest to create Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park.

So in 2005, after many local stakeholders went to Congress and testified for this need, Congress passed the Ste. Genevieve County National Historic Site Studies Act and that directed the National Park Service to conduct a special resource study. Finally, in 2016, so about 10 years after that, the special resource study was complete, and it was delivered to Congress. Those findings stated that in fact, the area was significant and suitable for inclusion in the National Park Service. And then in 2018, the park was authorized by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018. The caveat there is that it included a provision that agreements and sufficient property would be required before the park would actually be established.

What does National Historical Park mean?

Catherine Cooper: What does the specific designation of a National Historical Park mean? And does that have implications for the site?

Chris Collins: That's a really good question. It's one that I grapple with myself and I've asked several people about this, because I've worked at a few NHPs in my career, and I've also worked for some National Historic Sites in my career. What I've finally figured out is that they're very similar, but the difference really comes down to instead of a smaller footprint, maybe just one distinct site, a National Historical Park has a larger physical footprint like a campus. And it usually also means that there's some increased complexity, either in the treatment of the resource or with the history that's being interpreted. And that's really what I've found is the difference between a National Historic Site and a National Historical Park.

Catherine Cooper: So at what stage did you become involved with Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park?

Chris Collins: I was selected for the position of park Superintendent and as the first employee of the park in the fall of 2019. And I started on the job in January 2020—before the park was established, we were just authorized at that point. When I started on the job, I didn't even have space for an office in Ste. Genevieve. We had one historic property, the Bauvais-Amoureux House, which does not have modern amenities, heat, air conditioning. It does have electricity, no internet. So I started with my office at the Old Courthouse at Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis. We did have another acquisition in progress, and in late February 2020, the park closed on the Jean-Baptiste Valle House. And it did have some modern amenities. It did have some administrative space that allowed me to finally set up shop in the community.

And so at first, a large part of my responsibilities were just working with local stakeholders, developing those relationships. Also, trying to figure out with my supervisor, our regional office, and the Washington office: okay, so what did the Secretary mean by we needed agreements and adequate properties in order to establish the park? I was really hired to get us across that finish line and so that took a good 10 months by October 30th, 2020, we were established and we became the 422nd unit of the National Park Service.

Challenges to Establishing a National Park

Catherine Cooper: What are the challenges of setting up a new National Park?

Chris Collins: Yeah, first and foremost, I just needed some office space just to have meetings, to do paperwork. I needed internet. I needed a desk. I had never worked on a brand new unit where I was the first employee. I don't think I realized everything it took. I'd always stepped into some empty shoes where there was already a cadence in place, relationships that were established that were pretty easy to figure out and move forward. But I started from scratch. So just aside from all the logistics, it was really about those relationships, meeting the community stakeholders, setting expectations. They had waited decades for the Park Service to get here. I think they felt like the minute I was hired, I would just hit the ground running and I knew where to go and I knew what was expected of me in the Park Service.

That was a huge challenge. It was a learning curve, it was daunting. And in fact, there were other nonprofits and government organizations in town that had already taken on that role of tackling preservation and interpretation of the resources and history. And so we were the new kids on the block. And so there was a lot of pressure to shine. There was also that sense of urgency like I said, they thought, “You know what you're doing, we've been waiting for you for decades. You've been planning for decades, right?” No. We're just starting now.

So there was a lot of pressure on me to really show the community that we were worthy to assist and care for their special place. There are a lot of passionate opinions here in this town. And so I really had to figure out where to focus my priorities, where the priorities for the new park should be. So setting the pace was huge, but it's also extremely rewarding. As well as it being exceptionally taxing at times for all the challenges and hard work, the successes and the progress, I think are the most rewarding and fun parts. I've had the pleasure to be involved in a lot of firsts at this park and I didn't realize how fun it would be to be the first to find this or that.

And so there are a few things that really stand out. It was a lot of fun to work with the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training on the analysis of the makeup of the historic fabric of some of the houses, we didn't know what we'd find. So that was really cool to see how that works. It was amazing working on our first historic structures report. The Bauvais-Amoureux House historic structures report is complete. There's actually a standout moment for that project, and that was when the contractor discovered a missing truss beam from the attic that at some point in that house's 229-year history had been repurposed and turned into a floor joist. So the excitement when we all ran down to the Cabo and we were shining our flashlights on that architectural mark, it was just, I don't know, it was a moment with just that energy and excitement that everyone felt. I think you were here that day.

Catherine Cooper: I was there that day.

Chris Collins: And I think you were just as excited as we were. It was so cool. And I think there's one standout moment of everything that I've observed or been a part of since I've been here. One of our park rangers gave a program to one of the descendants, an Amoureux descendant. And I think we were all a little teary-eyed and moved when at the end of the program, he said, “That's why I've been waiting for the National Park Service. That's what I've been waiting to hear.” And wow, what a moment to be there when you have a descendant say that to the park ranger, who's so nervous giving a program about his family.

Catherine Cooper: Right.

Chris Collins: It was amazing.

What are your plans for Ste Genevieve NHP

Catherine Cooper: What are your hopes for Ste. Genevieve going forward?

Chris Collins: There's a running inside joke amongst the staff at the park that we talk about all the time and it’s “the potential”. I think maybe it's probably a huge motivator for the staff of all new parks. I mean, the potential, the things that you can do and the things that you can be a part of. And we've had a number of conversations about that kind of elaborate like, well, what does that mean? What is the potential? So some things that stand out to me that we really hope to get to is increased community engagement, continuing to develop those relationships, strengthening those relationships, getting those stakeholders, those descendants involved in what we do in Ste. Genevieve. So the acquisition, the preservation, and the restoration of the cultural landscape, it's changed so much in the past 230 years.

So working on that is exciting, providing inclusive and relevant interpretation. Really telling those untold and underrepresented stories, that's important to the staff at this park. And so it excites me when we can start to do that. We're really excited to build a robust and a far reaching education program. We want to spread the word, reach youth about the park’s history. We also look forward to developing a park museum program about exhibits, archeology, curation of artifacts. Something that's important to me is providing increased accessibility for visitors with physical and cognitive needs. That's a huge challenge for historic properties.

So thinking of ways and maybe thinking outside the box for ways that we can make that happen; it's all about figuring out that delicate balance between resource protection and visitor enjoyment. And so spending a lot of time thinking and concentrating on that. And then maybe lastly, I get really excited about recruiting and building a staff of dedicated and passionate employees. Having a staff that's as excited about this place as I am is really important and it keeps me motivated and engaged.

Catherine Cooper: So you are no longer the only staff member?

Chris Collins: Thank goodness. No. We're now a staff of four and hopefully, we'll have a few more budget increases and we can keep growing over the next few years.

Catherine Cooper: Thank you so much for talking with us today. The park is open for visitors?

Chris Collins: The park is open seven days a week, nine to five central.

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