[MassHistPres] Response to question RE "Demonstrating Historical Significance"

[Aaron Marcavitch]

I always think about significance as a continuium.  Lets think about history for a second - and
this take some thinking about other countries, not just the USA.  If we did not have Stonehenge,
the cathedrals, the castles, or other relics of the past - we wouldn't be able to establish our
understanding of what has happened before us.  Most people will recognize that a castle is
significant for its relationship to history in general.  

So, what about something as mundane as a gas station (or drive-in or motel or...) What historical
significance is there to that building?  Well, if its the last one it shows the history and
development of gasoline stations - a significant change in the way modern society worked after the
turn of the 20th century.  Without that relic we could not understand how early gas stations
worked.  

And our typical houses?  Well that shows us how WE lived.  Pierce Lewis once wrote that "our
landscape is our unwitting biography."  The buildings, streets, fences, gardens, highways, etc are
all part of our biography.  We cannot tell the story of our history without relics of our past. 
Why do we save photographs?  Why do we tell stories?  Because humans have the capacity to
understand the past and remember the past.  

Anyway, I find that historical significance need not be a philosophical discussion alone.  It can
have real benefits to the modern person.  Education of our children for one.  Architectural
harmony if you are a person who thinks of aesthetics.

Anyway - good luck

Aaron
Nantucket, MA
--- Robert Judge <Judge.R at comcast.net> wrote:

> Dear Marian:
> 
> We are dealing with the same issue here in South Hadley, so I will be
> interested in responses, too.  We are marshalling support for an historic
> property here through a website you can see at
> http://friendsofthecastle2.org, about which I will appreciate comments.
> 
> Robert Judge
> Chairperson
> South Hadley Historical Commission
> 
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