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Working with Section 106 ACHP
Case Digest Summer
2004 Puerto Rico: Rehabilitation
of Defensive Walls, San Juan National Historic Site (closed case)
CLOSED CASE:
Puerto Rico:
Rehabilitation of Defensive Walls, San Juan National Historic Site
Agency: National Park
Service
With more than
1.2 million visitors each year, the San Juan National Historic Site
in Puerto Rico is considered a premier cultural icon. The 16th-century
site contains the oldest and largest extant Spanish fortifications
in the New World, is listed in the National Register of Historic
Places, and is a World Heritage Site.
Over the years,
many of the sites defensive walls have eroded.
In a unique
collaboration, the National Park Service (NPS) and the State Historic
Preservation Officer invited an international team of experts to
recommend conservation measures. NPS
recently executed a Programmatic Agreement that implements the teams
recommendations.
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In 1997, the National Park Service (NPS) began rehabilitating the historic
defensive walls surrounding the San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto
Rico. As a premier cultural icon, the site is listed in the National Register
of Historic Places and is a World Heritage Site.
San Juan National Historic Site, Puerto Rico
(Thomas Barron, photographer; photo courtesy of NPS)
After repairing and stabilizing the defensive walls, NPS planned to cover
the surfaces with a mixture of stucco and mortar. The Puerto Rico State
Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) objected to NPSs determination
that its proposed stucco-mortar treatment would not adversely affect the
site, arguing that such treatment would jeopardize the walls structural
integrity by trapping moisture.
The SHPO also said that the treatment would compromise the walls
visual integrity by covering and destroying the surface, which the SHPO
considered an important character-defining feature because of its patina
of age.
When NPS began stuccoing the sites north wall, however, the SHPO
asked the ACHP to investigate NPSs compliance with the Section 106
review process.
The questions this raised, coupled with evident physical problems with
the stucco application, led NPS and the SHPO to enter into an agreement
in 1998 that detailed a plan for addressing the defensive walls, and that
included the ACHP as a full participant.
In a unique partnership, NPS and the SHPO also invited an international
team of conservation specialists to explore technical and philosophical
issues in the treatment plan.
Through the U.S. National Committee of the International Council on Monuments
and Sites, such a team was convened in 1999, with the ACHP participating
as an observer.
Among other recommendations, the team suggested ways to deal with structural
stability, drainage, material loss, vegetation, and previous repairs,
plus the need to test repair materials such as mortar and render mixes,
documenting work as it is undertaken, and on-going research.
Based on the recommendations, NPS executed a Programmatic Agreement in
July 2004 with the ACHP, the SHPO, the Puerto Rico Department of Transportation
and Public Works, and two local preservation organizations on the treatment
of the defensive walls around the San Juan National Historic Site.
Staff contact: Martha
Catlin
Posted
August 9, 2004
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