Sustaining Our Past: Building Resilience at Sayward-Wheeler House

This post is the first in a new series, Sustaining Our Past, by Joie Grandbois, Director of Sustainability at Historic New England. The series explores our organization’s climate action efforts and highlights how we’re adapting historic sites to meet the challenges of a changing environment. Through project updates, partnerships, community engagement—and the occasional reflection on sustainability in our communities and our daily lives—Joie will share how preservation and sustainability work together to protect New England’s history.

Nearly everyone who experienced the storms that swept through New England in January 2024 has a story to tell about the impact on their lives, communities, and home. Historic New England was not exempt, with several of our sites affected by water and high winds. One site in particular experienced more extreme flooding: Sayward-Wheeler House in York, Maine.

Located on the bank of the York River at the edge of York Harbor, Sayward-Wheeler House is not unfamiliar with flooding. The site regularly experiences sunny day high tide flooding caused by offshore winds or the higher tides brought on by full and new moons. This increase in flooding doesn’t impact just Historic New England. The Fisherman’s Walk, an important York cultural asset, runs along the shoreline and can become inaccessible during these tides. It also experiences washouts and other damage during storms.

At Historic New England, we recognize that to preserve places like the Sayward-Wheeler House and the Fisherman’s Walk for future generations, we need to make our sites better able to withstand the impacts of flooding and storm events. This spring, in partnership with FB Environmental, we began developing a resilience plan for Sayward-Wheeler House.

While we can’t predict exactly when the next big storm event will happen or what its impacts will be, we can take steps now to help our sites better withstand future events, ensuring that places like Sayward-Wheeler House can continue to tell their stories well into the future.

Over the next several months, we will assess the site’s risks and develop ideas to create a more resilient shoreline and protect the buildings and landscape. We won’t be doing this work alone. Sayward-Wheeler House exists within a community, and we will be reaching out to gather feedback and ideas through meetings, surveys, and other formats to develop a plan that benefits both the property and the York community.

Written By Joie Grandbois, Director of Sustainability

This project is supported in part by the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, and the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.