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Moravian College • Preservation Master Plan
to specific design issues. Following a balanced,
reasonable, and disciplined process is often more
important than the exact nature of the treatment
option that is chosen. Instead of predetermining an
outcome in favor of retaining or recreating historic
features, the Standards for Rehabilitation ensure that
all the critical issues are considered. The Standards
for Rehabilitation are useful in consideration of the
construction of new buildings in an historic context
and the alteration of older buildings as necessary
for reuse, safety, accessibility, or maintenance. As
with any public policy issue, the public interest in
preserving historic buildings and landscapes must
be balanced with other public interests.
The ten standards that comprise The Secretary of
the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation are quoted
in full below, followed by a brief discussion of the
implications of each.
Standard 1 -- a property will be used as it was
historically or be given a new use that requires
minimal change to its distinctive materials,
features, spaces, and spatial relationships.
Standard 1 recommends compatible use in the
context of adaptive re-use and changes to historic
buildings and landscapes. This standard encourages
owners and managers to find uses that retain and
enhance historic character, not detract from it.
For example, the work involved in re-use projects
should be carefully planned to minimize impacts
on historic features, materials, and spaces. The
destruction of character-defining features should
be avoided.
At Moravian College, a number of buildings
demonstrate this principle. Old Chapel/Hearst
Hall and New Chapel/Peter Hall both began with
ground-floor refectories and top-floor chapels.
This use has continued into the present, with the
adjoining ground floors combined as Clewell
Dining Hall, and the two chapels now being
used as performance spaces. The Gymnasium at
the Priscilla Payne Hurd Campus was no longer
needed following the merger of the women’s and
men’s schools and the relocation of sports activities
to the North Main Street campus. As the merged
school decided to concentrate its arts programs at
the Priscilla Payne Hurd Campus, the Gymnasium’s
soaring interior became first an art studio, and then
a gallery, and its exterior was preserved largely
intact.
Standard 2 – The historic character of a property
will be retained and preserved. The removal of
distinctive materials or alteration of features,
spaces, and spatial relationships that characterize
a property will be avoided.
Standard 2 recommends the retention and
preservation of character-defining features. It
emphasizes the importance of preserving integrity
and as much existing historic fabric as possible.
Alterations that repair or modify existing historic
fabric are preferable to those that require total
removal.
Historic character is preserved to an unusually
high degree at Moravian College, with a number
of buildings displaying intact distinctive elements
and historic interior spaces. However, some
landscapes have been altered by drastic changes to
their composition. For example, the conversion of
part of the Priscilla Payne Hurd Campus Pleasure
Grounds to a parking lot required removal of the
ceremonial gateway entrance and circular fountain
that once characterized the core of the resource.
Standard 3 – Each property will be recognized as a
physical record of its time, place, and use. Changes
that create a false sense of historical development,
such as adding conjectural features or elements from
other historic properties, will not be undertaken.
Standard 3 focuses on authenticity and discourages
the conjectural restoration of an entire property,
feature, or design. It also discourages combining
and/or grafting historic features and elements
from different properties, and constructing
new buildings that appear to be historic. Literal
restoration to an historic appearance should only
be undertaken when detailed documentation is
available and when the significance of the resource
warrants restoration. Reconstruction of lost
features should not be attempted without adequate
documentation.
The concept of a physical record has been explored
in different ways at Moravian College. The Single
Brethren’s House was given a careful physical
investigation for clues to its evolution over time
(HABS 1968), and restoration was guided by these
findings. While its exterior was returned to an
early appearance, evidence of changes inside has
been preserved and, in the case of the covered-over
fireplaces and early central heating elements,
highlighted as points of historical interest. Despite
restoration of the original paired central entrances,
John Milner Associates • October 2009 • Chapter 4 • Stewardship • 64