Countering demolition arguments…or beating the "George Washington slept here" mindset
When I was young my parents shuffled me and my sister around the country to take in our country’s landmarks during the summer family vacations. With only enough time to hit the highlights of American history, we grew up with a narrow perspective of what it meant for something to be “historic.” Historic was a term reserved for east coast taverns where George Washington slept, Independence Hall in Philadelphia where our founding fathers toiled over the wording to the Declaration of Independence, and Lincoln’s boyhood home in Indiana (itself a replica, but nonetheless, a “historic” replica).
History was synonymous with national importance, but there was some room for folks with state importance: governors, semi-mythical figures, and such. What really didn’t have that heritage cache, though, were the local historic districts, whether residential or commercial. Each district had many fine, old buildings, but we didn’t travel to Madison, Indiana, to take in their huge landmark districts and learn about their old buildings. I’m guessing a lot of people were raised with the bias about what constitutes historic versus non-historic, and whether we could still consider all of the places where Washington *didn’t* sleep as historic in their own right.
While that began to change in the 1930s as communities such as Charleston, South Carolina, and New Orleans designated local historic districts, giving residents on a board of architectural review the power to stop the demolition of historic resources, the Penn Central case in the 1970s seemed to put the federal government’s stamp of approval on the designation and protection of historic resources in local districts. In other words, we were beginning to figure out that a wide swath of our history and architecture was important, was worth preserving, and was worth protecting against demolition.
How things have changed, collectively, in the last 25-30 years.
As President of the PPRA (Powhatan Point Revitalization Association) we inherited our old high school facility (3 story, 55,000 sqft w/ 500 seat auditorium, full size gym, 43 classrooms, full kitchen/banquet room for 200 seats). It represents a quality facility (80 year old built with stone/brick that remains the same as was in 1963 when I graduated), that if constructed today with same materials would cost $35M. With historic site registration and infrastructure upgrades in heating/cooling/electrical/lighting/fire safety/handicap/flooding provisions to meet current occupancy standards at cost of $1.5M (all done under tax incentives/grant opportunities), the facility would be a first class facility for a variety of uses. It includes partial use as a community center along with museums/theater/fitness-rehab/cultural arts/retail/hotel etc.. Given current condition, restoration would be miniminal, that could be far more invaluable.
The importance of this comment to others, is that landmark facilities particularly school facilities, if acted on early after abandonment can provide communities with many benefits including increrased government revenue generation from those improvements where costs can be mitigated through grant, loan subsidies, and credits for energy efficiency.
Michael, you bring up such a critically important point. Members of the community need to be engaged in the process from an early point, and to communicate with us about what’s happening.
Too often, Heritage Ohio receives a request for help on a community issue that has been in process for months, if not years. Whether it’s fair or not, when this happens, a good bit of the public sees the “hysterical preservationists” coming out at the 11th hour along with the outside “experts” from Columbus, to save a building that realistically had its fate sealed long ago. This just reinforces the negative stereotype of preservationists not as solution-finders with preservation in the equation, but as last-minute obstructionists.
While we never shy away from providing assistance at the last minute where we can (especially in cases of emergencies), we have a much better chance of securing a positive preservation outcome if we’re helping out on an issue early on.
I know you recently lost a battle for your local historic school, and I appreciate you chiming in, in the hopes that others may avoid a similar fate.