RICHMOND, VIRGINIA: The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution presented Richmond Architectural Historian Calder Loth its prestigious Historic Preservation Medal during the organization’s annual Continental Congress in Washington, D.C. The medal recognizes a person who has done extraordinary work over a long period in historic preservation at the regional, state, and/or national level.
Loth spent 41 years working to preserve Virginia’s historic buildings with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources before retiring in 2009. He continues to work part time there while also serving as volunteer photograph editor for the DHR Virginia Landmarks Register website. He continues lecturing, writing and photographing historic properties and supporting restoration of a historic property he first saw in 1965 while a graduate student at University of Virginia Architecture School.
He and two fellow students were exploring historic sites on Virginia’s Northern Neck, when they stopped at Menokin, the deserted home of Francis Lightfoot Lee, one of seven Virginians who signed the Declaration of Independence. Some 20 years later, helping preserve Menokin became part of Loth’s job, an involvement that didn’t end with retirement. He is an honorary member of the Menokin Foundation Board of Trustees and serves on the Menokin restoration advisory committee. The foundation has taken a unique “Glass House” approach to restoring the historic landmark.
Loth was nominated by Dr. Cheryl Billingsley, regent of the Commonwealth Chapter of DAR in Richmond. The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a women’s service organization whose members can trace their lineage to an individual who contributed to securing American independence during the Revolutionary War. Today’s DAR has over 185,000 members in 3,000 chapters in the United States and abroad. DAR members annually provide millions of hours of volunteer service to their local communities across the country and world. DAR chapters participate in projects to promote historic preservation, education, and patriotism.
