National Trust President Richard Moe to Give Keynote Address at Chestertown History Weekend, April 21

Chestertown, MD, April 17, 2006 — Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience joins the Historical Society of Kent County, Kent County Heritage Trust, Kent County Arts Council, and Kent County News to welcome Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, as the keynote speaker to kick off Chestertown History Weekend, Friday, April 21, at 5:30 p.m. at the Prince Theatre, 210 High Street.

Moe will discuss the importance of preserving the Eastern Shore's rich historic heritage and the region's unique landscape in the face of the formidable threats and challenges presented by development pressures and creeping suburbanization. The event is free and the public is encouraged to attend.

"The Upper Eastern Shore has been called 'America's last great colonial landscape'," says C.V Starr Scholar and historian Adam Goodheart, who helped to organize the History Weekend's events. "But this rich legacy could be squandered before we pass it on to future generations. Historic preservation is about more than just a few fancy colonial houses in Chestertown. It involves protecting the rural landscapes and farms that make the Upper Eastern Shore such a distinctive region with a deep connection to our nation's past."

Since 1993, Moe has led the National Trust for Historic Preservation—the nation's largest preservation advocacy organization—in its mission to save America's diverse historic places and to create more livable communities for all citizens. He is the co-author of Changing Places: Rebuilding Communities in the Age of Sprawl and author of The Last Full Measure: The Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers. A graduate of Williams College and the University of Minnesota Law School, as well as the 1998 recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Maryland, Moe has been widely acclaimed as a frontline leader in the nationwide battle against suburban sprawl.

Chestertown History Weekend, a program of lectures, panel discussions, exhibitions, film screenings, and musical performances at various locations in the downtown historic district, will be held Friday, April 21, and Saturday, April 22, to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Chestertown's founding in 1706. For more information about the weekend's events, visit http://starrcenter.washcoll.edu, or contact Kees de Mooy, Program Manager of the C.V. Starr center, at 410-810-7156.