The 25 - Peter Dessauer
Photo by National Park Service
“My career with the National Park Service has been an odyssey of interesting places, persons, professionals, and projects—the four Ps,” says Peter Dessauer.
That odyssey, which began in 1977, took him to Denver, New York City, and Boston and saw him engaged with such projects as the Hopewell Iron Master’s House, the Lowell Canals and Locks, Ellis Island Main Building, Castle Clinton, Faneuil Hall, and the Old State House.
His work on the restoration, design, fabrication, and installation of the ornamental copper domes, globes, and cornices on the Ellis Island Main building, which he calls one of his “most rewarding endeavors,” earned him a Presidential Design Award in 1990.
Dessauer, a licensed architect, was brought up in historic environments such as Aiken, South Carolina, Deerfield Academy, Tufts University, Clemson University, the Preservation Institute Nantucket, and the University of Florida, where he earned a master’s degree in architecture.
His first role with the park service was as a historical architect in the Denver Service Center in Colorado. Since July 1992, he has been park architect for the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
The park has more than 50 historic buildings, the most of any park in the service, and Dessauer has overseen more than $110 million in expenditures for the constant preservation maintenance, rehabilitation, stabilization, ADA adaption, and upgrades to the park buildings and structures for visitor interpretation and for many events associated with the history of Harpers Ferry, the American Civil War, African American Heritage, civil rights, the John Brown Raid of 1859, and the development of industry and transportation.
“It’s a complex park, a veritable preservation laboratory with so many different and challenging structures, historic fabrics, and preservation issues that demand state-of-the-art attention,” he says.
Dessauer’s work will kick into high gear starting next year as the nation begins celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the War of Independence. Through 2033, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, as well as others in the system, will feature special programs and projects.
