Rose Scott Long Rothbart - Building on the Past

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Building on the Past

Rose Scott Long Rothbart’s career as an architect specializing in historic preservation allows her to preserve stories, too.

By Jennifer Larson

As an architect specializing in historic preservation, Rose Scott Long Rothbart doesn’t just focus on stone, brick and marble when she delves into a new project. She sees the potential of an aging building to shine again and the opportunity to preserve the stories of those who created the buildings and the people who lived within their walls. 

“These structures are the vessels that hold the stories of those who designed, constructed, lived in and died in them,” said Mrs. Rothbart, a member of the Hannah Benedict Carter DAR Chapter, New Canaan, Connecticut, since 2014. “Once they are gone, the significance of those stories is undermined, and they are frequently forgotten.”

Mrs. Rothbart grew up in a small town near Selma, Alabama, where she lived in a house built in 1924 by her great-grandparents. Her grandmother lived next door in a house built in 1851 by her ancestors. The homes were filled with furnishings and memories, with stories that captivated her.

“The materials, surfaces, objects and spaces in those buildings were magical, breathable, ingrained in my day-to-day life,” she said. “How could I not want to preserve and share this world with others?”

Drafting Her Dream Job
She graduated from Auburn University School of Architecture and has worked in historic preservation alongside her husband, Carl, for 40 years. They met while working in the conservation department at an architectural and engineering firm in New York City. She is currently a preservationist and senior project manager with Architectural Preservation Studio, a women-owned design firm based in New York City with a satellite office in New Canaan.
 
“We have two grown children, Charles and Katherine, both of whom have managed to avoid a career in architecture, but both of whom have hands-on preservation abilities and experience,” Mrs. Rothbart said.

The storyteller in her loves to dig deep when conducting research. Newspapers, magazines, ancestry websites, archival collections—all of these hold precious details that help her do her job well. She has a particular affinity for the Library of Congress, which holds some of her work from when she was an intern with the Historic American Engineering Record in Lowell, Massachusetts. 

Recent Restorations
Throughout her career, Mrs. Rothbart has worked on various historic preservation projects for The Breakers, the stately mansion built by Cornelius Vanderbilt II and his wife, Alice, in Newport, Rhode Island, during the Gilded Age. 

In 1999, the lavish “summer cottage” once owned by one of the nation’s wealthiest men needed a new roof after withstanding decades of wind, rain and damp salty ocean air. As The Breakers is a National Historic Landmark, this job entailed careful conditions assessments and surveys before the facade and roofing restoration began. 

During the research phase, Mrs. Rothbart learned about the role that Vanderbilt women had played in the upkeep of the house over the years, including Alice Vanderbilt, her daughter Gladys and granddaughter Sylvia.

“A man may have had the house built, but for the vast majority of its existence, it has been women who kept it standing,” she said. 

Mrs. Rothbart plans to use her expertise to preserve even more history for future generations, starting with her grandmother’s house, “Pitts’ Folly,” in Alabama. 

“There is nothing more fulfilling than this work,” she said.

Hidden History at Pocket Cemeteries
Rose Scott Long Rothbart also uses her research savvy to help locate pocket cemeteries in New Canaan, Connecticut. The project started in 2017, when her town’s public works manager reached out to her DAR chapter for help. An Eagle Scout contacted the city wanting to do a cemetery cleaning project at a rural cemetery; could the Hannah Benedict Carter DAR Chapter help them identify one? 

First up was accessing the list of rural cemeteries maintained by the local historical society—which she had used previously when preparing a nomination form to add local buildings to the State Register of Historic Places. 
Despite this detailed list of the town’s 30 pocket cemeteries, 10 had unknown locations. 

“Finding some was a simple task, especially if they had been maintained or were adjacent to a road,” she said. “Others weren’t so easy.” 

Reviewing digital aerial views, checking old maps, asking around—all of these were tactics used by Mrs. Rothbart, dubbed “The Cemetery Whisperer” by her fellow chapter volunteers. 

“I did go down some circuitous paths!” she said. “Unfortunately, we still haven’t found the last one.” 

She encourages other DAR members to take up this project in their communities, noting that most towns have pocket cemeteries, each with their own stories to tell. “They deserve to be maintained and preserved,” she said. “Locating them is the first step.”