Interpreting Philadelphia
I just got back from Philadelphia, which is an interesting case study not only in historic preservation but in the interpretation of historic sites. You can find historic house museums, living history interpreters, historic neighborhoods, historic markers, and of course major patriotic sites, like the room where both the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were written.
That room of course is in Independence Hall, one of the first sites preserved in the 19th century, for its patriotic associations. That is why sites were preserved – patriotic associations – pretty much until the early 20th century. Architecture was simply a means to that end. Continue Reading
Creative Destruction
I got a question about Creative Destruction at my lecture at the Chicago History Guild a couple of weeks ago and my first response was: “that is the hottest thing in preservation scholarship.” It has been for over decade, actually, from Max Page’s Creative Destruction of Manhattan and Michael Holleran’s Boston’s Changeful Times to the recent release of Randall Mason’s Once and Future New York. Dan Bluestone has also contributed to this scholarship, as have many of the pieces in Future Anterior and other journals.
I think many people confuse creative destruction with the concept of creativity and the tabula rasa, and thus come to the curious conclusion that preservation stifles creativity. This noxious notion doesn’t pass the sniff test: any child can draw on a blank canvas – it takes real creative skill to express yourself in context. Continue Reading