Texas Sacred Places Projects Boosts

The Western Religous Heritage Initiative's Message

  The Texas Regional Office's Western Religous Heritage Initiative is a community collaborative designed to help people understand the value of sacred places in the community.  The flagship program of this initiative is the Texas Sacred Places Project (TSPP), which partners historians, academics, architects, and the religious community. 

TSPP is an accessible portal to resources about sacred places in Texas that:

• Promote their preservation as a marker of community past,
• Facilitate their use as an affirmation of community present, and
• Foster new sacred places as an inspiration to community future.

                                                                                 United Methodist Church in Reagan, TX

This multidisciplinary team of experts from across the state are leading the initiative to connect the knowledge and resources of preservationists, architects, academics, historians, and church leaders to document the sacred places in Texas that under gird the state’s religious heritage.  

The first Western Religous Heritage meeting at Texas Historical Commission

Components of the Texas Sacred Places Project include an interactive Web site, a publicly-accessible database of sacred places in Texas, a documentary survey and oral history resource, a heritage tourism element, and shared expertise between the academic, historical, architectural, and religious communities.

                                    Prairie View A&M School of Architecture Dean Dr. Ikhlas Sabouni, Texas Architect Editor Stephen Sharpe, and Texas Regional Office Advisory Board Chair James Nader assign tasks to the steering committee in October

The results, available to the public, will help congregations make the case for capital fundraising, in addition to providing an academic, historic, and cultural resource.

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church, Galveston, TX

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For more information about the Western Religious Heritage Initiative, contact Suzanne Yowell at syowell@sacredplaces.org.  To find out more about the Texas Regional Office, click here.

Western Religous Heritage Steering Committee

Texas Historical Commission

*Larry Oakes, Executive Director 

*Terry Colley, Deputy Director   

*Toni Turner, Development Officer

Preservation Texas

*Krista Schreiner Gebbia, Executive Director 

National Trust for Historic Preservation

*Daniel Carey, Director, Southwestern Region

Texas Conference of Churches

*Rev. George Bithos, Executive Director

Texas Architect Magazine

*Stephen Sharpe, Editor

Historic Resources Committee, Texas Society of Architects

*Ray Leiker, AIA

Architecture Deans

*John Casbarian, Rice University

*William Dupont, University of Texas, San Antonio

*Don Gatzke, University of Texas, Arlington

*Joe Mashburn, University of Houston

*Tom Regan, Texas A&M University

*Dr. Ikhlas Sabouni, Prairie View A&M School of Architecture *Frederick Steiner, University of Texas

*Andrew Vernooy, AIA, Texas Tech University

Prairie View A&M

*Dr. Akel Kahera, Director, Texas Institute for Preservation of History and Culture

*Anna Mod, SWCA

*Barry Norwood, Department of Architecture  

*Arsenio Rodriquez, Department of Architecture

Texas A&M University

*Anat Geva, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture     

*Phill Tabb, Professor, Department of Architecture    

*Bob Warden, Professor and Associate Director, Center for Heritage Conservation

*David Woodcock, Professor and Director, Center for Heritage Conservation     

Texas Tech University

*Gary Smith, Associate Professor, College of Architecture 

University of Texas, Austin

*Michael Holleran, Director, Historic Preservation Graduate Program

Architects

*Dan Hart, AIA Midland

*James Heck, AIA San Antonio

*Ben Heimsath, AIA Austin

*Charles John, AIA San Antonio

*Gary Lindsey, AIA Abilene

*John Volz, AIA Austin