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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/04/1998 - Regular Minutes - Historic Preservation Committee HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING COLLEGE STATION CONFERENCE CENTER 1300 GEORGE BUSH DRIVE WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1998 -- 5:15 P.M. HISTORIC COMMITTEE Bill Lancaster, Chairman; Elton Abbott; Rebecca Berry; MEMBERS PRESENT: Dennis Maloney; Jeannie Miller; Shawn Carlson MEMBERS ABSENT: Deborah Jasek, Co- Chair; Carol Wagner; Sharon Menn STAFF PRESENT: David Gerling, Special Facilities Superintendent; Pamela Einkauf, Senior Secretary VISITORS PRESENT: Grace Calbert, Conference Center Supervisor; Mollie Guin, Chair of the Conference Center Advisory Committee; Fran Lamb, Vice Chair of the Conference Center Advisory Committee I. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 5:17 p.m. by Bill Lancaster, Chairman. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Jeannie asked that, under item 2. Introduction of New Members, the sentence be changed to read "acting head of the Reference Division at Evans Library" instead of "Records Division". The correction was made, and the minutes for the January 14, 1998 meeting were approved. 3. HEAR VISITORS: Bill welcomed all the visitors. He introduced Grace Calbert, Conference Center Supervisor; Mollie Guin, and Fran Lamb from the Conference Center Advisory Committee; and Jeff Carroll, author of Legendary Texas. 4. DISCUSSION WITH AUTHOR, JEFF CARROLL REGARDING ORAL HISTORIES BOOK: Bill explained to Mr. Carroll that the Oral History project had been ongoing since 1994, and that there had been nine sessions held with the tenth to take place on February 18, 1998. He explained to Mr. Carroll how the sessions were run, how the information collected during the sessions was compiled, and some of the topics which had been covered. Bill stated that when the book is written, he'd like to steer clear of such things as when buildings went up and streets were paved, since those have already been documented. He would like to see the book written in the form of vignettes, showing how life was back then. 'Historic Preservation Committee Page 2 Bill said the HPC was trying to find someone who would be interested in going through all the information collected to -date, and putting it into book form. He asked Mr. Carroll, how he would put everything together. Mr. Carroll asked if anything like this had been done previously. Bill said a book had been written on the history of College Station but it was more statistical in nature. Mr. Carroll said if he understood correctly, the HPC would like to see something that would be along the lines of a companion to the history book, but with a different focus. Dennis said yes, that it should be something that gave the history and the ambiance of what was here. Mr. Carroll said that type of writing was what he did and enjoyed. He asked how large a text the HPC envisioned. It was estimated that there were about 3,600 pages total, collected from the sessions which had been held. Mr. Carroll warned the HPC that not everyone or everything said could be included in the finished product, and some people would be upset. Mr. Carroll asked who the target audience would be. David said a very broad audience. He stated that the HPC had discussed having the book written so that an elementary school student could understand it, if included as part of a history class, but still be interesting enough to be enjoyed by adults -- a fun book to read. The book would start at 1900 and end at 1950. Mr. Carroll asked If the book would be a commercial work to be sold. David said it would. Mr. Carroll asked what the HPC wanted in the way of illustrations. David said there were actual photographs which had been donated during the history sessions and some pen and ink renderings. Grace said all the photos collected had been black and white. Mr. Carroll asked if there was a good stockpile of photos, and Grace said yes. Mr. Carroll said a mixture of both would be good. Mr. Carroll asked what kind of time frame the HPC was looking at, in terms of the project. David said the money for the project had to be encumbered before September 30, 1998. Mr. Carroll said a year was a fairly reasonable target if talking about a draft. The editing and the publishing would take longer. He said he was teaching full time and would have to set aside time for the project. David said that the HPC would continue to gather information beyond 1950, and would like for other books to follow. Mr. Carroll said the HPC needed to plan for that in advance, and if that was done, it may be better to have the volumes span smaller time frames. This would help solve the problem of the number of people who could have their stories included. After some discussion, it was decided that the cut -off point for the first volume would be just prior to the start of World War II. Mollie Guin stated that there were a lot of very talented children in the school system capable of reproducing some of the photographs collected from the oral history sessions, as pen and ink drawings. If the children's drawings were used to help illustrate the book, it would give them a sense of ownership, cut down on cost, and increase the demand for the book. Jeannie asked how large the first volume would be. Dennis suggested no more than 250 -300 pages per volume. Mr. Carroll asked if the HPC had a working title for Historic Preservation Committee Page 3 the book. David told him "Memory Lanes ", with each chapter or group of stories as a different Lane. Dennis asked about printing costs, and Mr. Carroll said that the HPC would need to handle that. Mr. Carroll asked about the possibility of getting more information if he discovered what he considered to be a "hole" when going through everything collected. Bill said that wouldn't be a problem, whether it was a one -on -one interview with someone, or researching some records, the HPC could help. Mr. Carroll told the HPC that if he were chosen to do the book, the best time for him to start would be the middle of the summer, and he'd need to know before May, because it would mean foregoing part of his teaching load for fall. David said he'd like for the HPC to make a decision by April, since the May meeting would be the last meeting until September. Fran Lamb asked if Mr. Carroll thought there would be any benefit in having the different volumes and stories revolve around a fictional family. Mr. Carroll said he felt certain that there would be one, if not more, real family that would surface throughout the stories -- a family wouldn't have to be created. He said he would be uncomfortable writing it as fiction, but that a novelist would probably be able to do it quite well. He said there was more benefit to using factual people. Elton said the HPC agreed with Mr. Carroll that the story would be better, if it stuck with real people. Grace asked Mr. Carroll if he was thinking of one book with chapters for the different lanes, or individual volumes for the different lanes. He said he envisioned each volume covering different lanes, with the lanes eventually growing up to be city streets. . Elton asked Mr. Carroll how much he'd charge to write the book. David stated that the money to write the book was coming from Hotel /Motel funds, and that there was $10,000 to hire someone to write the book and get it published. He added that if the first book sold well and a profit was realized, the City Council would look favorably on future volumes being written. Becky said the HPC needed to look into what it could feasibly do, as far as publishing costs, with the money that's available. Mr. Carroll agreed, stating that the HPC needed to decide ahead of time what it wanted the final product to look like, and how much it would cost to make it look the way they wanted. Then, whatever money is left, that's what you negotiate with the author on. He stated that there were so many options, the HPC needed to deal with a publisher or at least a printer. Bill said the HPC needed to do some homework. Dennis asked Mr. Carroll if he would receive a percentage of the profit. Mr, Carroll said there were different ways to contract it out, but what would be attractive to him would be a set fee for writing the book, plus a minor percent of what sold. He said he would like to do the project, however he would need some money up front, because for every class he didn't teach that would be about $600 a month he wouldn't be making. He said the HPC would need to get an ISBN number, Historic Preservation Committee Page 4 which would take a little bit of time and money, but it would mean the book is on the open market for the whole world and it could be ordered from anywhere. He said the HPC might want to consider a professional distributor for marketing outside the local area. Dennis suggested talking to someone with the University Press. Elton suggested checking the City of College Station's Printing Department, David said he would check with the City's Printing Department and University Press before the next meeting. Grace asked about copyrighting. Mr. Carroll said there were different ways to do it. If its a write - for -hire, where no percentage of profit goes to the writer, whoever pays the bill gets the copyright. If a high percentage goes to the author, then the copyright usually stays with him. There are also joint copyrights. Mr. Carroll said if he was selected to do the writing, he would ask for a contract. David said the city would require that there be a contract as well. • The HPC had no further questions for Mr. Carroll. Bill invited him to stay for the remainder of the meeting. 5. DISCUSSING OTHER BOOK OPPORTUNITIES WITH CONFERENCE CENTER ADVISORY BOARD REPRESENTATIVE: David explained that the Conference Center Advisory Committee had been involved in getting the oral histories done, as well as looking into getting the book written. Grace said that she and Fran had lunch with a local author who had given them some suggestions for the book, however she wasn't interested in the project because of time constraints. Fran said the author had suggested a fictional story similar to "Ring Dance" or "Lonesome Dove" -- using actual events, just not using the real names. Bill said he could see doing that as an additional piece to the book, but he personally didn't want to get too far away from the actual people and facts. Grace said it may be one way of keeping people from being offended because their name /story wasn't used. She suggested stating something like "the names were fictional but the stories were contributed by.... " and listing the names of everyone at the end of the book. Fran said the author had suggested that approach in order to key in on the entertainment value of the book, and to try to increase sales by appealing to a wider audience other than just College Station and the Brazos Valley. Dennis said there would be entertainment value following the theme in the vignettes that Mr. Carroll had become proficient at writing. Bill stated that with all the factual data available, he'd like, at least on the first try, to stick with real people. He said that San Antonio had a lot of well- documented factual stories that McMurtrey could base his novel on. College Station didn't have that yet. Dennis suggested using the factual names and listing all contributors at the end of the book anyway. He added that College Station was such a small town, that there would be some people or families who would show up in the stories more than once. Elton said he would like to explore the possibility of getting sponsorship for the book, since he didn't believe that there would be enough money to publish it and pay someone to write it too. He said the HPC was more interested in getting the book written than in the revenue, and he felt that if Mr. Carroll received some revenue as Historic Preservation Committee Page 5 the author, then the project would be a success. Mr. Carroll agreed that the sponsorship idea should be explored. He said that frequently large banking institutions, insurance companies, etc., will underwrite the cost of something like because they can write it off at tax time. Fran said the author had also suggested getting Barbara Bush to write the forward to the book, which would open up a whole other audience. If It was a children's story -- something that children could enjoy -- then Mrs. Bush might be amenable to the idea. Grace said the only other thing the author had suggested was investigating the underwriting, the printer, the printing -- everything it takes. Bill thanked the guests for their research. 6. REVIEW AND DISCUSSION OF HISTORIC HOME APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED: Shawn presented an application for 1000 Munson. Mary Louise Moore who has lived in the house for 50 years, is a neighbor and Shawn said she went over and talked to her for about an hour and then typed up the application for Mrs. Moore. David said copies would be sent out in the packets so that the application could be voted on at the next meeting. Dennis said he'd received a list of questions from Pam so that he could interview Colonel Loveless in order to complete the application for a marker for his home at 206 Lee Avenue. Grace, in the meantime, had received a copy of The Golden Eagle in the mail and someone had interviewed Colonel Loveless. The article on the front page answered the questions needed to complete the marker application. Grace told Dennis thought that she had gotten questions together on early transportation, and the military. Dennis told her to give him the questions, and he'd go talk to Colonel Loveless. 7. OTHER COMMITTEE CONCERNS: Flyers were passed out advertising the upcoming oral history session on February 18, 1998. Grace asked everyone to distribute them to friends and co- workers, because they needed help. Dennis volunteered to be a moderator. David invited Mr. Carroll to attend the session so he could observe and see how the sessions were conducted, and the stories collected. David said the antique lights at Luther Jones Park had been installed. They still need to be hooked up to electricity. He said the next good weather weekend, the lights would be installed in Brison Park. 8. ADJOURN: The meeting adjourned at 6:40 p.m.