By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Historic Beaufort Foundation Executive Director Cynthia Jenkins is stepping down from the position after holding it for nearly 15 years.
The Historic Beaufort Foundation (HBF) has been a defining voice for preservation of historic buildings in the City of Beaufort.
Jenkins, 73, told members that she would be retiring from the position on June 7 in an email that was sent on Thursday, May 29.
Lise Sundrla, who worked with Jenkins for the past five years, has been named as the new Executive Director of the HBF effective June 7, according to a release sent out by the HBF Board.
“I am honored to follow in the footsteps of such an incredible preservationist as Cynthia Jenkins,” Sundrla said in the release. “She has set the bar high.”
When asked about her time at the HBF, Jenkins said that her most proud accomplishment during her tenure as director was how they “were not just able to rescue the Verdier House but be good stewards of it for 50 years.”
“I am also very proud that we were able to continually add to the knowledge of what good preservation is, using that house as an example,” said Jenkins.
While she was proud of the HBF’s contributions to the Verdier House, she said that there are historical buildings and areas in the Historical District that she wishes they could have saved.
Jenkins said that she wishes that they had been able to save more of the African-American owned buildings and businesses in the district, particularly post-Reconstruction buildings.
“I just think that, you know, Beaufort was the first of the southern cities to include their African-American neighborhood in their National Register nomination,” Jenkins said. “I mean, the very first, as far as we can document, and yet we let it flitter away with demolitions and dilapidated buildings and that kind of thing.”
In the past 20 years, close to 20 buildings have been lost, according to Jenkins.
“And, you know in a National Historic Landmark District, that’s a lot,” said Jenkins. “And I’m afraid that the edges of the district and the Northwest Quadrant where it once really showed its post-Civil War and very early 20th century evolution as an African-American town or community, it’s losing that.”
Jenkins said that the heart of the African-American business district was Port Republic and West Street, and it is gone with nothing left to show what happened during the 20th century.
“That’s a whole hundred years of architectural history and evolution,” Jenkins said. “Cultural values lost.”
The last few years of Jenkins’ time as executive director were spent in unsuccessful legal battles to try and block a hotel, parking garage and apartments from being built by developer 303 Associates in the historic district.
The courts sided with the City of Beaufort and 303 Associates in the proceedings, stating that the projects were legal.
Jenkins said she was disappointed in the court system for ruling in support of the developers.
“I think that Beaufort’s a very, very special place.” Jenkins said. “And those people that understand that, I hope, will do everything they can to keep it special and not let it be overwhelmed by inappropriate out-of-scale buildings that don’t need to be in that particular location.”
She said that she does not think that big buildings are bad, but she does not believe that big buildings belong in Beaufort’s Historical District.
Jenkins plans to spend her time in her retirement slowing down a little bit and spending time with her husband and dog.
She said she has some writing that she wants to do and just catching up on life and getting organized, which has been hard with how busy she has been.
“There’s a lot of books I’ve got stacked up I want to read that I haven’t got to read the last four or five years,” Jenkins said.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
