New England
architecture &
preservation
(The following essay by R. W. Bacon is adapted from the Quarterly News of the Newburyport (Mass.) Preservation Trust, Fall 2018.)
Do preservation
advocates
have an
image problem?
As battle-weary survivor of a failed Local Historic District campaign --- and as a history, museum, and preservation professional --- it is my observation that we preservation advocates have an image problem, and we need to do a better job of articulating preservation interests to our fellow citizens.
To fellow citizens not involved in a particular local issue or who are otherwise occupied with the all-consuming demands of present-day life, "preservationists" may be erroneously and negatively viewed as:
- Reactionary throwbacks resistant to all change ... and all development.
- New Age idealists seeking to impose their utopian values on everyone.
- Overeducated aging hippie socialists with a screwball vision of the common good.
- Elitists seeking to ensure high property values ... and "insulated" neighborhoods.
- Antiquarian eccentrics who would prefer to live in a 17th-century theme park.
- Well-to-do folks with too much time to contemplate the play of light and shadow on perfectly-spaced clapboards ... while half of the world worries about food and water.
Have I left a stereotype out? As in all stereotypes, deep within there is probably more than a kernel of truth. (I know which one I am!) Regardless of what drives individual preservation interest, sometimes the way we express our heartfelt point of view, perhaps even with years of knowledge, insight, and passion behind it, simply does not resonate with friends, neighbors, or new arrivals.
When we preservation advocates claim "It's our heritage!" in a knee-jerk response to a developer making destructive alterations to a 300-year-old house, not everyone gets it. First of all, it's not everyone's heritage. In my view, we might engage more support if we got better at articulating why all cultures and individuals are moved to save "stuff" in the first place --- from personal keepsakes; to shared memories; to landscapes, buildings, and neighborhoods.
We need to realize that preservation is not always about architecture. It's not always about "the last extant example of a fimbobulated finnacle." If indeed we have to "sell" the idea of preservation, we must have better answers to the "so what?" and "who cares? questions.
Several sources come to mind that may help us better articulate preservation values to friends, neighbors, and new arrivals young and old:
- Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives, by Sarah Williams Goldhagen (2017). Based on cognitive neuroscience, this book explores the ways in which a room, a building, a neighborhood, or a city square shapes our feelings, memories, and well-being. The intangible ambiance we value in a particular neighborhood is more than a "history buff" fixation.
- Why Old Places Matter: How Historic Places Affect Our Identity and Well-Being, by Thompson M. Mayes (2018). This book looks into why we humans around the world become attached to old places. Organized by category, the values first addressed are continuity, memory, and individual identity. The values of history, architecture, and civic or national identity follow, along with eight other categories. The explicit aim is to help people express why old places are worth saving.
- Bending the Future: 50 Ideas for the Next 50 Years of Historic Preservation in the United States, by Max Page and Marla R. Miller (eds.) (2016). This book is a collection of 50 essays by leading historic preservation professionals, historians, architects, writers, and social activists.
In a failed Local Historic District campaign in Newburyport, Mass., way back in 2011, community preservation advocates were treated to a stunning preview of the culture war that has roiled the entire country in more recent years, complete with misinformation and conspiracy theories.
But with better articulation of the broad-view values of preservation that we are more likely to hold in common, perhaps we can shake off the negative stereotypes, make some new friends, and save more special places. Yes, it's true. This preservationist is also an optimist.
Early New England Architecture
& Historic Preservation
Despite the "march of progress," there are still impressive concentrations of early domestic architecture throughout all six New England states.
The First Period house (1625-1725) with features pointed out at right is a c. 1700 home in Newburyport, Mass. In the smaller photos, from top left, are the 1710 Weeks Brick House in Greenland, N.H.; a Georgian-style house (1725-1780) in Newport, R.I.; a 1740 house in Middletown, Conn.; a row of 1850s mill-worker's houses in Newburyport, Mass.; a Greek Revival house (1825-1850) in Stonington, Conn.; and the 1808 John Cushing House, a Federal-style house (1780-1830) in Newburyport, Mass.
Below are publications in this category currently available. Click on any book title below and you'll go to a page with a more detailed description of the book, a preview of selected pages, and a link to purchase and pay via PayPal.
Click on any title below for more information,
and to read the contents and introduction.
The HABs and the HABs NOTs:
Documenting the Architecture
of Newburyport
in the Historic American
Buildings Survey
by Reginald W. Bacon
(Newburyport, Mass.:
Variety Arts Press, 2017)
8.5x11.0, 160 pages;
casebound (hardcover)
ISBN: 978-0-9977528-1-6
LOC: 2016920943
$35.00 (US) includes
USPS media mail shipping
in the U.S.
Payment accepted by PayPal
(see "Buy Now" below or on the
full description page).
To order by postal mail, send order details, your shipping address, and payment by check to Variety Arts Enterprises, P.O. Box 489, Newburyport, MA 01950.
Walk Newburyport:
Three Self-Guided
Residential Walking Tours,
with an Overview
of Common Styles, Local History,
and Significant Public Buildings
by the Newburyport Preservation Trust
(Newburyport, Mass.: NPT, 2011)
6x9 softcover, 32 pages,
with illustrations, maps, & photos
$14.00 (US) includes
USPS media mail shipping
in the U.S.
Payment accepted by PayPal
(see "Buy Now" below or on the full description page).
To order by postal mail, send order details, address, and payment by check to Variety Arts Enterprises, P.O. Box 489, Newburyport, MA 01950.
The Visitor's Guide
to the Weeks Brick House & Gardens
A guide to the 1710 house,
gardens, public hiking trails,
and 300-year history
of the Weeks family farmstead
by Reginald W. Bacon
(Newburyport, Mass.:
Variety Arts Press, 2015)
5.5x8.5, softcover, 60 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9817945-9-4
LOC: 2015914615
$16.00 (US) includes
USPS media mail shipping
in the U.S.
Payment accepted by PayPal
(see "Buy Now" below or on the full description page).
To order by postal mail, send order details, your shipping address, and payment by check to Variety Arts Enterprises, P.O. Box 489, Newburyport, MA 01950.
Early Families
of Middletown, Connecticut
- Vol. I: 1650-1654
(Early Settler Profiles,
Land Grant Maps, Timelines,
Compiled Research & Analysis,
... including 17th-Century
Domestic Architecture)
By Reginald W. Bacon
(Newburyport, Mass.:
Variety Arts Press, 2012)
8.5x11.0, 195 pages; comb-bound
ISBN: 978-0-9817945-5-6
LOC: 2012949502
$50.00 (US) includes
USPS media mail shipping in the U.S.
Payment accepted by PayPal
(see "Buy Now" below or on the full description page).
To order by postal mail, send order details, your shipping address, and payment by check to Variety Arts Enterprises, P.O. Box 489, Newburyport, MA 01950.
3 1/2 Centuries in Greenland:
The Weeks Brick House Farm
of Greenland, N.H.
By Neill DePaoli, Ph.D.
(Newburyport, Mass.:
Variety Arts Press, 2010)
44 large-format pages
ISBN: 978-0-9817945-4-9
Please note that this publication is available for purchase through the Weeks Brick House & Gardens.
$25.00 (US) includes
USPS media mail shipping in the U.S.
Payment accepted by PayPal (at the Weeks Brick House & Gardens web site).
To order this title by postal mail, send order details, your shipping address, and payment by check directly to the Weeks Brick House & Gardens, P.O. Box 93, Greenland, NH 03840.
