The Preservation Society Society of Fall River celebrated its 20th anniversary at its 2025 Annual Meeting on April 24, and paid tribute to the legacy of its founder and former president, James Soule.
The event also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the creation of Fall River’s only protected local historic district, which is located in the Highlands. The event highlighted the Preservation Society’s recent award of a Community Preservation Act grant from the City of Fall River for a project to explore the expansion of the 40C district. This joint project is being managed by a partnership of both the Preservation Society and the Fall River Historical Commission.
The Preservation Society also revealed the 2025 Most Endangered Properties List and the 2025 Most Preserved Properties List.
Fall River Historical Commission Chair Jason Bouchard-Nawrocki was the featured speaker of the night, who spoke of how preservation can help by “Mending the Holes” in communities. Bouchard Nawrocki first joined the former Fall River Historic District Commission in 2019 and was elected chair of the Historical Commission in 2022 when the two boards merged.
His work on the Historical Commission has resulted in several initiatives, from adopting the city’s first set of Design Guidelines created in collaboration with the Preservation Society of Fall River, studying the possible expansion of the city’s singular Local Historic District in the Highlands, and guiding Fall River to recognition by the National Park Service as a Certified Local Government.
Read More About Guest Speaker Jason Bouchard Nawrocki
A native of Southington Connecticut, Jason relocated to Fall River from Providence Rhode Island in 2015. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Historic Preservation from Roger Williams University in 2004.
With a focus on architectural history, Jason has researched and written about over 150 historic buildings for various nonprofit organizations. For the Preservation Society of Newport County, his research is featured on Newport’s Bellevue Avenue History Trail. In Providence, Jason has written over 50 house histories for the Providence Preservation Society. His research and writings have contributed to the organization’s Gowdey Library of House Histories, as well as their popular fundraising event, the Festival of Historic Houses. His contributions earned him a 2024 Heritage Stewardship Award from the Providence Preservation Society.
Since 2010, Jason has worked as a freelance archivist for a descendant of the
Vanderbilt family in Newport Rhode Island. The archive consists of nearly 150 years of Vanderbilt history and was formerly housed in the family’s Newport home, The Breakers. Jason’s photography documenting the family’s former apartment on the third floor of The Breakers was featured in the online editions of Town & Country and Southern Living magazines.
Jason works for Cornish Associates, a prominent real estate developer and property manager of historic rehabilitated mixed-use properties in downtown Providence and serves on the board of directors for the New England Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians.