Rivers & Roads Completes Historic Preservation Training Video Series for Preservation Maryland and National Park Service Chesapeake Gateways

Baltimore, MD — Rivers & Roads Consulting has completed a three-part historic preservation training video series for Preservation Maryland and National Park Service Chesapeake Gateways, designed to help Chesapeake Bay watershed communities strengthen interpretation, heritage tourism, and smart growth efforts.

The videos will support communities participating in the Chesapeake Gateways Communities Initiative, which helps places across the watershed connect cultural and natural assets with tourism, economic development, local resiliency, and long-term stewardship.

Rivers & Roads led the project in partnership with W Films, combining content strategy, script development, expert interviews, visual storytelling, production coordination, and accessibility deliverables into a polished training series built for online learning.

Historic Preservation Training Videos Built for Community Leaders

The training series was created for local leaders, municipal and county staff, tourism professionals, development partners, anchor institutions, nonprofit organizations, and community teams working to strengthen Chesapeake gateway communities.

Rather than producing static instructional content, Rivers & Roads approached the series as a set of media experiences. Each video was designed to make complex preservation and planning topics clear, practical, and engaging for leaders working in real communities with limited time, limited capacity, and significant opportunity.

The final videos focus on three topics:

Bringing History to the Present explores how communities can update historic interpretation so stories remain accurate, inclusive, accessible, and relevant.

Why Tourism Is More Than Visitors examines heritage tourism as a form of community economic development that strengthens local identity, supports small businesses, and helps visitors connect more deeply with place.

Preservation and Smart Growth in Maryland introduces the connection between historic preservation, housing, infrastructure, environmental stewardship, and more thoughtful development patterns.

Turning Preservation Education Into Compelling Storytelling

The project required translating preservation principles, tourism strategy, and planning concepts into clear narratives that communities could understand and use.

Rivers & Roads developed the creative framework for each video, shaped the narrative arc, drafted scripts, coordinated review, and helped connect technical ideas to real-world examples. W Films supported production and post-production, bringing the visual quality, editing, sound, and pacing needed to make the series feel professional and engaging.

“This project sits exactly where Rivers & Roads does some of its strongest work: at the intersection of strategy, storytelling, and community impact,” said Sam Shoge, Partner at Rivers & Roads Consulting. “Historic preservation can feel technical from the outside, but at its core, it is about people, places, memory, and choice. Our job was to take that complexity and turn it into something useful, accessible, and compelling for community leaders across the Chesapeake region.”

Expert Interviews Ground the Series in Real-World Experience

The videos feature interviews with practitioners and community leaders whose work brings preservation, interpretation, tourism, and smart growth to life.

For the video on updating interpretation, Rivers & Roads interviewed Jill Ferris, Vice President of Learning & Innovation at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, and Robert Forloney, Program Officer for Partnerships at Maryland Humanities. Their insights helped explain how heritage organizations can revisit language, expand narratives, work with communities, and use interpretation as a living tool rather than a fixed record.

The heritage tourism video featured Jake Wynn of Visit Frederick, Ivy Wells, Economic Development and Main Street Director for the Town of Berlin, MD, Meg Baco, Executive Director of the Anacostia Trails Heritage Area, and Linda Harris of the Harriet Tubman Museum and Educational Center. Their perspectives showed how communities can connect history, visitor experience, public art, local business, and authentic storytelling into a stronger tourism strategy.

The smart growth video featured Briana Paxton, Revitalization Policy Analyst at Preservation Maryland and manager of the organization’s Smart Growth program. Her interview explored Maryland’s long history of smart growth policy, the relationship between development patterns and Chesapeake Bay health, and the opportunity for communities to use adaptive reuse, infill development, and thoughtful planning to grow without losing their character. Also featured was Ross Benincasa, Senior Vice President for Community Development at Fello (and Rivers & Roads co-founder). Benincasa’s interview focused on housing as a core smart growth strategy, emphasizing infill development, mixed-income and mixed-ability housing, early community engagement, and growth that strengthens historic cores rather than expanding around them. Together, their insights framed smart growth not as a technical planning term, but as a people-centered approach to change.

Making Complex Preservation Topics Clear and Accessible

Accessibility was built into the project from the beginning. The final deliverables included video files prepared for online use, closed captioning, transcripts, and related accessibility materials to support use through digital learning platforms.

That structure reflects one of the central goals of the project: making preservation knowledge easier to access and apply.

Many gateway communities are led by small teams, volunteers, nonprofit staff, public officials, and local partners who are balancing multiple priorities at once. The videos were designed to meet those leaders where they are by offering clear takeaways, practical examples, and a tone that is informative without becoming overly technical.

“Creative work still needs structure,” Shoge added. “A good training video does not happen because someone points a camera at an expert. It happens through thoughtful framing, strong scripting, careful production, and a clear understanding of what the audience needs to walk away knowing. That is the kind of creative strategy we brought to this project.”

Supporting Chesapeake Gateway Communities Through Preservation, Tourism, and Smart Growth

The completed series gives Chesapeake gateway communities a practical resource they can return to as they evaluate local assets, update interpretation, strengthen visitor experiences, and plan for future growth.

Each video reinforces a broader idea: communities do not have to choose between honoring their past and preparing for the future. With the right tools, they can do both.

They can tell fuller stories. They can make history easier to find and understand. They can connect visitors to local businesses and cultural assets. They can reinvest in existing places. And they can make growth decisions that protect the landscapes, waterways, and historic character that make the Chesapeake region distinct.

Rivers & Roads Expands Creative and Educational Media Work

The completion of the series further demonstrates Rivers & Roads’ growing capacity to produce creative, content-driven projects for public agencies, nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations.

The firm’s work increasingly combines strategy, communications, facilitation, research, and media production to help clients explain complex ideas, train stakeholders, and build public understanding.

For Rivers & Roads, the project also builds on related work in community development, Main Street training, historic preservation, heritage tourism, and regional capacity building.

“This is the kind of work we want to do more of,” Shoge said. “There are so many important ideas trapped inside reports, workshops, and technical conversations. Video gives us a way to bring those ideas to life. When it is done well, it does not just inform people. It helps them see what is possible.”