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Kyle Cox
HIST 6320
2-4-10
Historic
Preservation
In a time of change in America, the citizens find it more
important to rebuild rather than restore. It only comes natural due to the
ever changing generation switch and the evolving technology. The public now
is more interested in the latest cell phone application and less on the most
historic building in their city or town. This does not take away from a
great generation; it just simply shows what they are more interested in and
what the culture of the United States represents. However, the public must
understand where they came from to understand where they are going. One
cannot speak of change if they don’t understand what to change. With that
being said, some aspects of the American past must be preserved; not only to
understand the past, but understand the future. This means that history is
forever a part of us and thus must be kept that way. Norman Taylor explains
this by stating, “it is our duty as a social and as members of our own local
communities to protect and preserve our heritage which is deep and rich.”
(Taylor, 11) However, although it is important to preserve the past for our
future, one must first see the transformation of historic preservation. The
practice of historic preservation is one that is continuing to be looked at
as a useful tool; however, the process at which it became widely used is one
that involves a lot of steps, philosophies and associations. All of these
aspect put together gives the public a sense of belonging to a past. The
journey of the transformation of historic preservation starts in the early
19th Century.
What began as a grassroots movement, preservation was only
looked at by people with an interest in history. It later would involve
into the formation of associations. Thus, in the beginning, those who felt
the need to preserve did so out of their own pocket, making historic
preservation privately financed. The first major actor of this time period
before the Civil War was Uriah Levy. Levy was solely responsible for
restoring Thomas Jefferson’s house, Monticello. This is only an example of
what came about in the early 19th century. Other notable homes
and building that were restored with private money were the James Madison’s
house and Andrew Jackson’s house. But perhaps the most influential and most
important preservation project was George Washington’s Mount Vernon home.
Ann Pamela Cunningham was the one who decided to restore this home. This
story is important because she got the Woman of the South Association
involved in restoring the home. This not only brought attention to the home
itself, but the organization brought preservation to the attention of the
entire nation. What started as a campaign to save one home trickled around
the nation and what was started by Cunningham became a national campaign.
What is to be taken away from this time period is that the time before the
Civil War, all preservation acts, were privately run. These few people who
preserved the house museums, saw the properties as having historical value
and thus must be saved due to patriotism. This is one key aspect to
preservation. Without these few acts of patriotism, preservation would not
be what it is today and the nation would be without the historic house
museums. The next step was to gain federal involvement in preservation.
In the time period after the Civil War, the federal government
first got involved in Casa Grande, Arizona in 1889. Here is where the
government first allocated funds to preserve the ruins that were at this
site. With the combination of this site and the Mesa Verde site, the
government eventually established the Antiquities Act of 1906. (Taylor, 31)
However, before this act, the federal government focused their attention on
more patriotic sites, like Gettysburg. The Gettysburg Battlefield was
acquired by the government in 1895. It was restored and preserved and later
became the first historic military park. In terms of building restoration
in the late 19th Century, two very different philosophies came
about. The first was by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc. He believed that the
restoration process was to bring the building back to its original state, if
not better. He stressed that restoration was to build it as it “should have
been.” (Taylor, 20) On the contrary to Le-Duc, John Ruskin and William
Morris believed that a building should be left as is. These two firmly
thought that the only preserving that should be done was stabilization.
Ruskin believed that to restore a building was like plastic surgery in the
fact that, “the beauty in age lines should be respected rather than
artificially changed.” (Taylor, 22) Each person may follow which ever
philosophy, but must understand that neither one is wrong. There are
practices of both that are still used today; Colonial Williamsburg is an
example of the Le-Duc philosophy, where Bay Furnace is an example of the
Ruskin philosophy.
Another key figure in the transformation of restoration of this
time period was William Sumner Appleton. Appleton, who would later create
the Historic New England Society, believed that building should be restored
not because of its association to someone, but simply because of their
architectural merit. To him, whether or not John Adams lived or stayed in a
building was beside the point. He looked to preserve a building no matter
what; an outhouse, to Appleton, was just as important as a castle. He was
also an important person because he introduced the plan of adaptive reuse.
This means that a building was to be restored for economical use. They
could be reused for restaurant use or rental use, to name a few. This paved
that way for further involvement and sparked the interest of more and more
people, organizations and government involvement.
In the time of the early 20th Century, the United
States Federal Government became more involved. As stated before, the
Antiquities Act of 1906 was passed to protect any federally owned land form
archaeological digs being practiced unlawfully. This act, which was passed
under the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, also protected areas of land
that had geological significance. It also paved the way for the National
Parks Service to be established in 1916. Its main goal was to protect
federally own sites from being built on or redeveloped. It also provided
protection of “sites to large for private protection, such as Jamestown and
Yorktown in Virginia.” (Taylor, 32) Some of its first actions were to
protect Civil War battlefields from being developed. In part to bring more
jobs the American people, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the
Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). This organization would take
pictures and draw pictures of buildings that were thought to be of
historical value to urge the restoration of these places. It would also
open up more jobs for those places that were found to be eligible of
restoration. HABS was, in turn, the first federal movement to allocate
privately owned properties under federal money. The next large organization
that was formed was the National Historic Landmark Program, which was
established in 1957. This program labels landmarks and properties that have
national historic significance. (Taylor, 150) They labeling of these
properties must be of value to all Americans. Due to the fact that there
are very few in the United States, these properties are very rare and thus
of the highest importance to the nation.
Perhaps the most important act of historic preservation was the
National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. This act, in turn, established
the National Register of Historic Places. Its purpose is to protect and
listing on the register from federal action. It also promotes documentation
of the significance, provides reviews of the property, allows the owner to
be eligible for federal grants and identify and landmarks that may be
affected by new developments. (Taylor, 49) However, to be eligible for
federal funding, one must obtain eligible through the State Historic
Preservation Office (SHPO). SHPOs purpose was to review nominations for the
National Register of Historic Places. Among other things, they also “advise
and assist in the efforts of local agencies.” (Taylor, 56) This is directly
correlated with the final step in historic preservation.
The final step is located on the local level. Here is where
preservation is most notably seen. Must old towns today have historical
districts, and they are normally where the tourists spend most of their
time. However, this would not be the case if it wasn’t for Susan Pringle
Frost. A native of Charleston, she paved the way for historical districts
to be recognized and to be molded after. To do this, she had to get
historic preservation to be a part of the city’s zoning ordinance. (Taylor,
38) Because of this victory, in 1931 Charleston had the first local historic
district in the United States. Likewise, John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Henry
Ford preserved districts of their own in Williamsburg, Virginia and
Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan, respectively. These two
districts, established before Charleston, got local governments involved in
preserving districts by creating local organizations. The Historical
Commission was established after Charleston and made way for other
districts, like The French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana, to be
recognized. Local combined with private and federal funding, give
properties multiple ways to be protected and preserved.
In conclusion, historic preservation is not only a necessity in
America, but it is a large part to keeping the past apart of the future.
Not knowing where a nation has come from will hinder the efforts of
preservation; but with the support of private, federal and local funding,
preservation and historic properties will live on forever.
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