City eyes World Heritage ranking

Newport is making a second push to be listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list – recognition that commission members appointed by the governor say could bring more history buffs and cultural aficionados to the city and the state.
“There is a large portion of travelers who do appreciate visiting World Heritage sites,” said Evan Smith, president and CEO of Discover Newport and a commission member. “We’ve been successful without it, but with [the designation], you get this gold standard that will be even become more prestigious and alluring. It’s an accolade that catches people’s eye. Destinations across the world take full advantage of it, wrap their brand around it.”
“Colonial Newport and the ‘Lively Experiment,’ ” and “The Gilded Age,” the two applications made in 2007 for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization program, were rejected by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park Service.
However, NPS deemed the Colonial application worthy of potential future consideration, said Pieter Roos, executive director of the Newport Restoration Foundation, a member of the previous group as well as the new commission.
Just how the new, 32-member Newport World Heritage Commission will approach the application remains to be seen, though some members say scaling it back may make for a better chance at winning the designation in 2016.
On Oct. 21, Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee formally appointed the commission to apply for the World Heritage designation in connection with the U.S. DOI’s announcement that it plans to update the tentative list of U.S. sites. That “tentative” list is the precursor to inclusion on the global list, which includes 1,007 sites.
The criterion, one of 10 that an applicant can seek to meet, will likely cover “exhibiting an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design.” The Colonial Newport application that was turned down embodied the “pioneering” nature of religious freedom and separation of church and state that characterized Newport’s founding and incorporation in 1639 and the charter, signed in 1663, Roos said.
Some of the 13 sites included at the time were the Touro Synagogue, the Colony House, and the Redwood Library and Anthenaeum, the nation’s oldest lending library, according to the original application.
As a U.S. senator, Chafee had supported the original application through a much smaller group in 2006 and 2007, said Roos and Jonathan Stevens, the state’s historic preservation officer.
“These are highly sought, worldwide designations,” Chafee said, “and tourism is a huge part of the economy in Newport and Rhode Island. Any other jewels we can put in our crown – [that] is going to help the economy. Having the World Heritage designation is very attractive.”
Whether the same mix of sites or something less is included remains to be seen, though some members believe focusing on fewer sites would make the application more compelling.
Ruth Taylor, executive director of the Newport Historical Society and a member of both the old committee and new commission, said making the case that religious tolerance leads to economic prosperity might benefit from a smaller number of sites.
“It was my opinion at the time, and I might have been in the minority, that there were too many properties and we needed to tighten up the focus,” she said. “We have to have a cohesive story that’s understandable by someone who isn’t here.”
In terms of economic impact if the designation is obtained – even on the tentative listing – Taylor and Newport Mayor Harry Winthrop, who is not on the commission, say any number of sites included on such a list would likely bring attention to the city and state as a whole.
“For the community at large, it almost doesn’t matter which [sites are included] because when people come here to see a World Heritage site, they will be interested in everything,” Taylor said. “They’ll be the kind of people that are interested in the whole history. It will draw people to the community.” Winthrop said the designation “is significant in that it’s so rare to receive it.” Roos said the application process is deliberative and slow, so a timetable cannot yet be spelled out, but he’d like to see the new commission submit an application in 2016 to the National Park Service. If the application makes the tentative list, it would be considered globally by the Paris-based International Committee on Monuments and Sites.
“To them, this is an academic, cultural and historical exercise,” Roos said. “You have to prove to this discerning international body that the application has ‘outstanding universal value.’ What you’re representing is documented in a historical sense – that it can be backed up and is provable to a very high standard.”
The commission includes representatives ranging from state and regional historic experts to the Chamber of Commerce of Newport County and the R.I. Commerce Corporation’s tourism division, as well as academic experts from Roger Williams University, Brown University and Salve Regina University, University of Rhode Island and the U.S. Naval War College.
“We need a greater degree of academic rigor to make our case, so we’ve brought in a number of people who can hopefully help us do that,” Roos said.
Linford Fisher, assistant professor of history at Brown, would like to see a deepening and broadening of the historical narrative to include African Americans, native nations like the Narragansetts and Niantics, and “the very complicated series of events in which religious freedom is worked out, sometimes in competing ways.”
Ultimately, even getting on the tentative list with a designation as a World Heritage candidate will elevate Newport’s and the state’s status as a tourist destination, Smith said.
“In the heritage and culture architectural realm, this is the one you want,” he said. “I believe we’re worthy of it.” •

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