 |
The Misuse of Historic Preservation
 | | | |
Like economics, historic preservation can be summed in the same sentence: "There is no free lunch." The problem with historic preservation is the delicate balancing act between public and private interests while preserving the past and allowing dynamic growth. Historic preservation is like environment, a warm and fuzzy term that has been and can be misused by people with hidden agendas for their own selfish purposes.
Would anyone want to have preserved the slums replaced by Lincoln Center? Of course, not! But there are people willing to use historic preservation as a noble excuse to pursue their own hidden agendas. People who don't like a particular design, a particular proposed use for a building, or who owns will demand that a building should be preserved because of its alleged unique character or history. St. Vincent's Hospital and the New-York Historical Society are struggling with expansion plans that includes residential towers to create income that have been opposed by various community groups. Instead of arguing the proposed design, use or expansion on its merits, historic preservation becomes the new rallying cry of people who oppose change of any kind.
Historic preservation has found new "friends" who say that a historic district should be expanded to include buildings "left out" in the original proposal should be preserved in order to frustrate some builder's "evil" design. No one asks what their real reason is. I remember seeing an exhibit on "endangered" mansions of Flushing at the Queens Historical Society. It would have been nice to have preserved every mansion but for every mansion knocked down, an apartment building housing a thousand people could be built at an "affordable rent" and the "wrong people" could move next door.
Or the shoe could be on the other foot. Some people will argue that a building was wrongly preserved. The Smithsonian Institution had the political power to force out the National Health Service Museum from its landmarked building on the mall in Washington, DC which was then demolished. A new museum that became part of the Smithsonian Institution was built in its place.
If a building has been designated to be preserved -- interior or exterior or both -- it imposes hidden costs of finding the right materials for its preservation while limiting how a structure may be used. For several years, The Museum of Arts and Design faced tough opposition to its purchase of purchase of Two Columbus Avenue. It faced a two-year battle over groups that wanted to landmark the ugly exterior of the former Huntington Hartford Gallery. In 2008, the museum won its battle, renovated the exterior, and a blight to the neighborhood was removed.
Sometimes, a building that one wants to be preserved may be entangled between how its private owners want to preserve their independence without incurring outside obligations that may lead to a takeover or problems. For example, Stanton Street Synagogue was successful in getting a loan from New York State to preserve its structure. The First Roumanian-American Synagogue collapsed because the people charge did not want to compromise their independence in securing such a loan or grant. The owners of the Steinway Mansion in Queens struggle to maintain it. A mysterious fire destroyed the Hammerstein mansion before it could be designed to be preserved. Residents in Riverdale and Douglaston want their entire neighborhood designated as a historic district in order to frustrate outsiders from moving in.
A good case in point was the battle to preserve the four-story home of Edgar Allan Poe, father of the American supernatural story on 85 West Third Street... When Edgar Allan Poe lived and worked from September 1845 to February 1846 at 85 Amity Street as it was then known, he was accompanied by his mother-in-law, Maria Clemm, and his wife, Virginia. Virginia's worsening tuberculosis likely prompted the move. Mrs. Shew, acted her nurse, and later would become an object of Poe's romantic attentions after he was widowed. Poe was inspired to write "Lenore" completed writing "The Raven" at this location and edited his Broadway Journal Magazine. Some of his more famous works such as "The facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" (which was made into a movie starring, who else, Vincent Price) were written here. Hence, biographers consider the period from one of the most important in his life.
For 70 years this building hosted the popular Italian restaurant, Bertolotti's. There was also a club called The Gold Bug, a title Poe aficionados would know about. NYU then acquired the building to destroy it in order to build a residential dormitory for its law school.
The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation led the charge in an epic battle of town and gown. They Society even had a petition of 70 scholars to testify to the importance of the building while NYU had a biographer of Poe on its staff who minimized its importance. NYU Exposed claimed: "Neighborhood residents have long expressed a strong connection to the building, both for its historical value, and for its architectural value as three story, free-standing, early 19th century dwelling. David Garrard Lowe, an architectural historian who wrote Stanford White's New York (Watson-Guptill, 1992), said the house is a "perfect example of colonial revival, the architectural style that the novelist Edith Wharton admired in her writings about the Village." (NYU Exposed.com) The building has also been acknowledged for its broader importance as an historic site. "Scholars across this country have been enormously anguished about losing this house," said Burton R. Pollin, a professor emeritus of City University who has written 12 books on Poe."
Opponents included: "New York City preservation groups, such as the Municipal Arts Society and the Landmarks Conservancy, as well as the Mystery Writers of America, wrote to the law school, "pleading with administrators to reconsider their plans." The Municipal Art Society further stated that NYU's plans "would radically alter the area." They're transforming Washington Square and changing the neighborhood's character by constructing buildings that are huge," said Aubrey Lees, a member of the Committee to Save Washington Square, a neighborhood group." (NYU Exposed.com)
The courts refused to rule on the issue on the grounds of insufficient legal merit. One of the judges who wrote legally in support of NYU's demolition of the building declared it was morally but not legally obliged to preserve the building but nothing in the past had been done and last minute suggestions on how to use it were too last minute to have an impact. "As the court wrote in its opinion: "From a historical, cultural and literary point of view, Poe House should stand."
On January 24, 2001, just missing the 192nd anniversary of Poe's birthday (January 19), a settlement was reached between NYU and the lawyers representing interests to preserve the Judson and Poe houses in Greenwich Village. The agreement called for changes in the design of the proposed Residential Law School building. In 2003, the Judson Church Parsonage and the Poe houses were dismantled, but their facades were be rebuilt and incorporated into the new structure. Inside the Poe facade, a room was dedicated to Poe and made available, through NYU, for readings and lectures. Historical markers, detailing the significance of each building, were added to the exteriors. This agreement, at least, recognized Poe's presence on the site and guaranteed a prominent reminder of that presence for generations to come. The opposition had exhausted its legal, moral, and historical resources.
Similar battles are being waged today how much homage should we pay to the past lest we prevent progress? Or progress destroy our past monuments of glory?
|
|
 |
|
Tips for your tour guide are always appreciated.
We accept
|
|
|
|
