There is no question that preservationists put their heart into their work and communities. Now that we’re officially in the month of love, we encourage you to make an origami heart with our special edition phoenix origami paper.
we’re bringing back our popular “love bomb” project for the month of february!
Nicholas Redding at the Historic Preservation Training Center, MD, 2021.
Here we offer a simple at-home project to create an origami heart just in time for Valentine’s Day. We want to see how you use your heartbombs this year! Be sure to tag or mention Preservation Maryland on social media @preservationMD on Facebook, @PreservationMaryland on Instagram , and @PreservationMD on Twitter and use #preservemd. Bring it by your favorite historic site, building, community, take a selfie with a fellow history lover or even solo to show your love for Maryland.
Download the Preservation Maryland origami pattern here
MORE ABOUT PRESERVATION & VALENTINE’S DAY
Have you heard of the preservation term, “heartbombing”? Reinvigorated recently by young preservation groups across the country, heartbombing is the simple act of declaring your love for at-risk historic properties with a valentine of their own. Did you know that the heartbomb may have been invented in Rockville, Maryland in the 1990s? In 1993, when a likely buyer of the ca. 1895 Wire Hardware building had plans to gut the interior, Peerless Rockville, a regional preservation non-profit, brought a lawsuit to defend its right-of first-refusal to purchase the building—ensuring its preservation. Soon after, the organization publicly kickstarted an Emergency Repair Fund with a gigantic heart in the storefront window, declaring “Our Hearts Belong to Wire.”
- Wire Hardware Store decorated with hearts in support of it’s restoration; Preservation Maryland collection, 1993.
- Wire Hardware Store decorated with hearts in support of it’s restoration; Preservation Maryland collection, 1993.