[MassHistPres] Fw: industrial museums

Mon Mar 12 13:31:38 EDT 2007

Readers of the list:  when I saw my post come through, I was embarrassed to 
see the multitude of spelling errors, so transmit a cleaned-up version 
herewith.

**********

From: <jworden at swwalaw.com>
To: "masshistpres" <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2007 7:01 PM
Subject: industrial museums

> None of these may be exactly on point, but they are examples of 
> preservation/interpretation of our industrial heritage:
>
> The mills & canal system of Lowell.
>
> The Old Schwamb Mill in Arlington
>
> The Burden Iron Works in Troy, New York
>
> The Aquaduct Museum/Visitor Center in Croton, New York
>
> J. Worden
> Arlington HDC
>
> =====================
> From: masshistpres-request at cs.umb.edu
> Date: Sun Mar 11 12:00:03 CDT 2007
> To: masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
> Subject: MassHistPres Digest, Vol 13, Issue 11
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> Today's Topics:
>
>   1. Metropolitan Water Works Museum? (Dennis De Witt)
>   2. Re: Metropolitan Water Works Museum? (Aaron Marcavitch)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2007 14:30:29 -0500
> From: Dennis De Witt <djdewitt at rcn.com>
> Subject: [MassHistPres] Metropolitan Water Works Museum?
> To: MHC listserve <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
> Message-ID: <9125ADBC-F5FD-4904-AF65-423310DFD30B at rcn.com>
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>
> Many of you may be familiar with the wonderful Richardsonian "high
> service" Metropolitan Water Works pumping station that stands next to
> the Chestnut Hill Reservoir (and across the reservoir from from the
> Boston College Campus) -- just beyond the Cleveland Circle
> termination of Brookline's Beacon St. boulevard.
>
> As you also may know, the site has been redeveloped with about 100
> DUs of housing in its four existing buildings and one new building,
> with the intent of supporting the preservation of the main engine
> room of the of the high service building, which contains three steam
> pumping engines, dating back to the 1890s.
>
> Originally the entire interior of the high service building was to
> have contained a museum.  But, as economic realities set in, four
> ancillary spaces, such as the coal bunker, we designated to become
> large condo units.
>
> Early in the process a museum pro forma was developed developed based
> on the larger model.  Given the now reduced space it doesn't credible
> in terms of visitations, budget, or operating model -- if, indeed, it
> ever was.
>
> Can you think of a viable model or analogy, of any sort, in New
> England or elsewhere, for something like this situation -- i.e. a
> museum with three spectacular but static 100 year old steam
> leviathans in a wonderful building?
>
> In some way the Larz Andrson auto museum might be an analogy in terms
> of architecture and location but everyone (OK, every male) to some
> extent can identify with cars.  Another analogy that comes to mind (a
> site I last visited 40 years ago, which says something) would be the
> Saugus iron works -- nothing much happened other than a water wheel
> turning, as I recall.
>
> Is the "museum" model wrong?  Is a better analogy the house-museum
> (or maybe a fire house museum, of which there must be some, somewhere)?
>
> Anyone got any suggestions of good analogies in New England or
> elsewhere?
>
> Dennis De Witt
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2007 19:30:30 -0800 (PST)
> From: Aaron Marcavitch <acornhp at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Metropolitan Water Works Museum?
> To: MHC listserve <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
> Message-ID: <538901.53775.qm at web36813.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> Dennis, (and anyone else interested),
>
> My mind immediately went to England.  (The Waterworks Museum in Hertford 
> was one answer:
> http://www.waterworksmuseum.org.uk/)  Europe has a better concept of 
> dealing with industrial
> archaeology.
>
> But I also think of the one in Baltimore that is a public works museum
> (http://www.ci.baltimore.md.us/government/dpw/museum/) - maybe thinking 
> broader than water works.
> Think about all the ways that Boston could be served by a specialized 
> museum like this.  They
> tried to do this with Heritage Harbor in Providence, RI - but it didn't 
> work so well.  Slater
> Mill, the Museum of Work and Culture in Woonsocket, or the American 
> Precision Museum in Windsor,
> VT are all good examples of museums with big mechanical equipment.  In 
> Pittsburgh there are some
> efforts to bring back a steel mill.  Bethlehem Steel Works (one of the 
> largest in the world) is
> slated to become the Museum of Industrial Heritage.
>
> You could combine an art installation into this as well.  Art and industry 
> sometimes make alot of
> sense together.
>
> But I don't think the museum concept is the worng way to think about it. 
> It will take
> fundraising, finding the niche, and tapping the right audiences - but its 
> all very viable in my
> mind. I don't really see the difference between house museum and museum - 
> I suppose you are
> indicating the difference between a museum which focuses on the history 
> and architecture of a
> specific place than a museum which explores the history of a wider topic. 
> After about 10 minutes
> of searching, I found several listings of waterworks museums in Europe or 
> Austrialia.  I found
> none in the US.  You could have the first one in the nation to explore the 
> topic of water
> processing.  (The Poland Springs building is a good example.)
>
> Sounds like fun.
> Aaron
>
>
>> Can you think of a viable model or analogy, of any sort, in New
>> England or elsewhere, for something like this situation -- i.e. a
>> museum with three spectacular but static 100 year old steam
>> leviathans in a wonderful building?
>
>> Is the "museum" model wrong?  Is a better analogy the house-museum
>> (or maybe a fire house museum, of which there must be some, somewhere)?
>>
>
>
> --------
> http://www.marcavitch.com
>
>
>
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> End of MassHistPres Digest, Vol 13, Issue 11
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