Daniel Tana

The L'Enfant Trust

The L'Enfant Trust, located in Washington, DC, is one of the most exemplary preservation easement-holding organizations in the country. Their goal is to preserve and promote "the beauty of Washington's urban environment" through the holding of preservation easements and the development of other preservation programs. In order to enforce the easements that they currently hold (1131), they must conduct an annual inspection of every property. My duties as their summer intern included assisting with this inspection process by reviewing photographs and doing follow-up field inspections on some properties; researching building histories, historic preservation methods, and technologies; administering and updating the Trust’s Easement Property Database; helping to develop goals; and contributing to e-newsletters, mailings, and technical assistance requests. The experience I gained at the L'Enfant Trust gave me a great insight into the amount of work and detail that is necessary to enforce preservation easements on a large scale, and showed me the architectural diversity that is found in our Nation's Capital.