Preservation in a Changing Climate: Adapting Historic Resources for the Future

In the face of climate change, historic properties must adapt or risk being lost. While this challenge is not new, its urgency is growing.

For the last five years Salem, Massachusetts, a coastal city with many waterfront historic buildings, has hosted the Preservation in a Changing Climate Conference, a day-long meeting sponsored by the City of Salem and the Salem Preservation Partners. This year, Nick Armata, Senior Preservation Planner for the Office of Historic Preservation, attended on behalf of the department. The focus was clear: climate change is impacting our region’s historic resources, and we must prepare.

The 2025 conference featured a range of expert voices, from historic coastal cities facing similar challenges. While each speaker presented a different perspective on coastal resiliency, they all expressed  a common theme: our traditional approaches to preservation must evolve in response to a changing environment.

Old Solutions, New Contexts: Designing with Climate in Mind

Christina Rae Butler, Provost and Professor of Historic Preservation and Architectural History at the American College of the Building Arts in Charleston, South Carolina, delivered a keynote address on how repeated flooding is reshaping the city’s historic districts. Like Boston, Charleston is a historic coastal community built on a largely man-made peninsula. Today, many of its historic neighborhoods experience flooding almost daily. While coastal flooding is not a new challenge, its frequency and severity have increased significantly, placing both cities’ historic centers at growing risk. 

Historically, property owners in the Southeast elevated buildings on raised foundations  to protect against hurricanes and storm surges. For many years, however, preservationists discouraged this practice for fear it would alter a building’s historic appearance. That mindset began to change after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and surrounding areas in 2005. Elevating historic structures is now widely recognized as a practical strategy for ensuring their long-term preservation.

This shift has led to new design guidelines that allow buildings to be raised while retaining their historic character. In neighborhoods where similar structures were built during the same period, the first building to be elevated often sets both the visual precedent and regulatory standard for others. These guidelines also inform new construction, promoting designs that are contemporary yet compatible with the character of historic districts. 

Closer to home, Provincetown, a historic fishing village at the very tip of Cape Cod, is taking a creative, community-driven approach to rising seas. Melyssa Nickerson and Timothy Famulare from the Town of Provincetown described how residents and officials are working together to protect the town’s distinctive character while adapting to a changing coastline. Through a public planning process, the town developed a climate adaptation plan built on flexibility rather than one-size-fits-all solutions. The plan offers a menu of practical tools, including deployable flood barriers and the restoration of coastal dunes, so each property can find the right fit. This collaborative model helps preserve both Provincetown’s heritage and its resilience for the future. 

Boston’s Past Offers a Blueprint for the Future

Boston has faced environmental challenges before. In the late 1800s, nearly 500 buildings in the Bay Village neighborhood were raised twelve feet to address persistent flooding and sanitation issues that followed the filling of the Back Bay. That same spirit of adaptation remains essential today.

According to the Climate Ready Boston report, many of the city’s historic neighborhoods are projected to experience routine flooding by 2050. In some areas, that future is already here. On Long Wharf, king tides and coastal storms now push harbor waters up to the eighteenth-century granite walls of the Chart House restaurant. In Dorchester, an unusually cold winter in 2024 caused an ice dam at the decommissioned Neponset River dam, leading to flooding at the historic Walter Baker Chocolate Factory and disrupting the Mattapan Trolley.

Susan Pranger, AIA, author, adjunct faculty member at the Boston Architectural College, and former member of the Boston Landmarks Commission, spoke about the science behind how historic building materials respond to environmental stresses and how climate change accelerates their deterioration. Pranger explained that by understanding how traditional materials were made and how they break down, we can better develop strategies to preserve and adapt them for a harsher climate.

This understanding is especially critical in neighborhoods like the Fort Point Channel Landmark District, where historic masonry buildings now contend with higher water tables and tidal exposure. Masonry that was never meant to encounter salt water is beginning to deteriorate, while more frequent freeze-thaw cycles and extreme heat events are taking a toll on wood and man-made stone.

Boston has always endured weather-related disruptions, but it is the growing frequency and intensity of these events that now pose an unprecedented challenge.

Preparing Boston’s Historic Neighborhoods for What Lies Ahead

Climate change is the defining challenge of our generation. It raises important questions for our city:

How can we protect the rowhouses of the South End while preserving their Victorian charm? How will the Back Bay, built entirely on man-made land, withstand increased flooding? The impacts of climate change are no longer theoretical. The water will come. Our job is to ensure we are ready.

The City of Boston is committed to thoughtful planning that embraces both resilience and preservation. By working with property owners, neighborhoods, and preservation experts, we can protect the unique character of our historic communities while preparing them for the future.

Change is inevitable, but with foresight and collaboration, it does not have to come at the cost of our history.

To learn more about the talks, click here.