[MassHistPres] Interior Preservation

[Marcia Starkey]

Hello,
Concern for the preservation of private historic interiors seems to me to 
have the most strength thru an appeal to house value and resale strengths. 
We are told that much of the replacement of siding,windows etc. is to a 
large degree tied to frequency of stay in the U.S.. If this is true, the 
same dynamics should apply to interiors perhaps even more than exteriors 
because more people think about them in detail and they are more "proximate" 
to the owners...probably especially women. There is extra "prestige/appeal 
value" in the kinds of interiors that I assume prompt this concern, and if 
so, and if the goal is to reach many owners in a community, it is more an 
education process than a legal one for HDCs and HCs?? And if you can be 
effective, this might very well spill over to exteriors and the pubic realm. 
It seems to me that, if we are public agencies, we must focus first on the 
public realm, as nice as the other concerns might be, and that this focus 
includes meshing these values with the larger concerns of preserving or 
enhancing the community's "sense of place", landscapes, environment and 
planning alternatives.
Marcia Starkey, Greenfield


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger Reed" <roger_reed at town.brookline.ma.us>
To: "Aaron Marcavitch" <acornhp at yahoo.com>
Cc: <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2006 2:08 PM
Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Interior Preservation


> Aaron,
>
> I just wanted you to know I share your concern about loss of interior
> spaces.  We see plenty of gut rehabs, but generally outside the local
> historic districts where much of the exterior is lost as well.  It might
> be an interesting question if one could figure out if an LHD protects
> interiors indirectly insofar as most people who want gut rehab will look
> elsewhere for a house.  I suppose thats just wishful thinking.  Of course
> on Nantucket, where the whole island is a district, that option does not
> exist.
>
> Roger Reed
>
>
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