Landmarks Foundation Seeks Docents

Our docents visited the Energy Innovation Center, located in the Lower Hill, as part of our continuing training efforts to help docents be better informed about our city and region’s architecture, history, and landmarks. Our organization controls a preservation easement on the building, which is the former Clifford B. Connelly Trade School, designed by Pittsburgh architect Edward B. Lee and opened in 1931. Here, Robert Meeder, founder and chairman of the EIC, tells docents about the process of preserving and repurposing the building, which is individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Do you love Pittsburgh, its architecture, and its gloriously complex history? Do you believe that saving and restoring buildings can help neighborhoods thrive economically as well as foster pride in one’s community? Do you have a talent for enthusiastically engaging others and navigating the subtleties of new ideas?
 
If so, perhaps you should consider becoming a docent for the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation. The principal function of their education department is to help build pride in the city and region by creating exciting, in-depth, and insightful tour and advocacy experiences about our distinctive built environment.
 
Docents are essential to this work, leading tours primarily in the City of Pittsburgh, both in Downtown and city neighborhoods and surrounding communities. Prior experience as a leader of architecture tours is not necessary, but docent candidates must be willing to commit to in-depth training.