MASON CITY – On Tuesday, October 22, 2013, the Mason City Historic Preservation Commission and the Mason City Park Board will host a joint meeting to discuss the pending nominations of East Park and Parker’s Woods Park to the National Register of Historic Places. The Open House will be held in the 2nd floor conference room at City Hall, 10 First St. NW, Mason City.
Beginning at 6:00 PM, architectural historians Barbara Kooiman and Carol Ahlgren will be present to discuss their survey of historic structures in Mason City’s park system and their nominations of East Park and Parker’s Woods Park as Historic Districts. At 6:30 PM they will make a more formal presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. The Open House ends at 7:30 PM.
Barbara Kooiman holds a Master’s of Arts in Public History/Historic Preservation from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and currently works as a private historic preservation consultant and teaches at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. Kooiman has done considerable research on New Deal era development in the Midwest. Carol Ahlgren holds a Master’s of Arts in Landscape Architecture and Historic Preservation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently works as a private historic preservation consultant. Her Master’s Thesis documented the Civilian Conservation Corps work in Wisconsin’s State Park system. Together Kooiman and Ahlgren have over 50 years in the field of historic preservation with a wide range of professional experience, much of it focused on the New Deal era and projects originating during the Great Depression. The nominations of East Park and Parker’s Woods Park to the National Register of Historic Places is part of the historical mitigation work associated with the City’s flood buyout project. The cost of the project is funded by FEMA.
