Preserving America

The idea of preserving historic America is well over one hundred years old. However the movement as really accelerated in the past fifty years. But what impact does this historic preservation have on the surrounding area? Do “historic districts” really accomplish what they say they will accomplish? And what exactly is “historic preservation”.

Both Cathy Stanton and Diane Lea leave out building codes that while do not preserve the historic character of a building; do preserve the historic vista of the property. The District of Columbia has such a rule, keeping the height limits of all buildings with D.C. below that of the statue on top of the Capitol Dome. All this code has done is pushed the towering behemoth from the center of town out into nearby suburbs such as Bethesda, MD. and Rossyln, VA.

Cathy Stanton’s book on Lowell, Massachusetts is an interesting look at urban historic preservation in America’s oldest manufacturing city. The book is combination of an anthropological look at the people involved in preservation, and a critical look at modern urban planning. Lowell, like many urban preservation projects, is a living city, while at the same time is also a historic entity. Stanton finds that many of those involved in the preservation of Lowell—both guides and consumers—have an insular existence when it comes to interacting with the city itself. Many want to do so, and think they are (such as those who take the tours of residential neighborhoods) but they just look, and do not interact. It becomes a situation in which tourists are served by a small number of community members, and you hope that the prosperity somehow trickles down to the rest of the city. As we have seen in Lowell—and elsewhere, just across the Anacostia River from the National Mall is Southeast Washington D.C., (a poverty-stricken neighborhood that a tourist only enters if their GPS badly routes them)—that isn’t always the case. Even with the Lowell Museum and Lowell NHS the city is still reliant on the boom and bust of the manufacturing industry, its attempts to create a post-industrial economy lagging behind the rest of Boston metro—with millions spent on an entertainment industry (including tourism) that doesn’t seem to have the benefits promoters believe it does.

Lowell is not the only urban preservation project in this country. Many cities all across the nation have developed historic districts and urban historical parks. The difference is historic districts remain in private hands, but any decision regarding renovation is subject to review by a historic preservation committee, often an intensive and expensive process. Originally developed as a counterpoint to urban renewal, historic districts have become the new urban renewal poster boys. They do cause property values and rents to rise, because history makes it “hip” to live and shop there, but as we also see in Lowell, housing usually isn’t affordable. In these cases it also isn’t new housing created, it is old affordable housing taken off the market as rents rise. On the other hand, it does preserve the character of an area and keeps America interesting.

Dorothy Lea laments that preserving America isn’t as natural as saving endangered species. Maybe it shouldn’t be. There is such a thing as too much of a “good” thing.