Organized and led by Margaret Back and Gina Tangorra of the Newport Restoration Foundation
Margaret Back is a Preservation Projects Manager at the Newport Restoration Foundation. At NRF, Margaret leads projects connecting climate change and built heritage resiliency. Her current projects include an energy efficiency study for 19th-century Newport buildings, and she is project lead for the Keeping History Above Water conference series. She previously worked as a Preservation Manager for the South Region of Historic New England, where she oversaw preservation projects and facility maintenance for properties in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. She holds an M.S. in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania.
Gina Tangorra is the Director of Engagement for the Newport Restoration Foundation. She has been at NRF for 7 years, with evolving roles that have worked to advance NRF’s strategic engagement with communities, increase accessibility, spark curiosity, and encourage a sense of belonging through inclusive storytelling.
Restoration Today: Ensuring the 21st Century Livability of 18th Century Buildings
Saturday May 3, 10am-10:45am
The Newport Restoration Foundation actively cares for the preservation, maintenance, and continued livability of over 70 18th and 19th-century rental properties in downtown Newport and at Prescott Farm in Middletown, RI. Much of this work is carried out by NRF’s full-time Preservation Crew of carpenters, painters, and systems experts.
This tour introduced participants to the restoration and preservation work of NRF through a focused lens on one ongoing 2025 restoration—42 Division Street, a ca.1748 residential building in the Newport Historic District undergoing a full restoration by the NRF crew. NRF staff explained project planning and how tools such as the NRF archive and property records are used to care for the buildings today. Members of the NRF team shared how clapboards, shingles, and architectural details are made, remade, and integrated into repair work on site, with a “replace in-kind” preservation ethos leading all work. Participants asked questions, learned about materials and methods, and placed the context of the house restoration into the larger preservation story of Newport.
Walk Reflections
Gina and Margaret gave us lots to think about when it comes to restoration — we are always living in a moment in history that the future may be interested in preserving! When Doris Duke preserved 18th century homes, she was using a 1970’s lens. . . It was also great to learn about the NRF craftspeople and translate the chalk marks that appear on houses in the springtime.
The biggest surprise: the people who live at one of the homes we looked at (aka, tenant stewards) were on the walk and let us go inside!
