[MassHistPres] determining integrity

Tucker, Jonathan TuckerJ at amherstma.gov
Wed Feb 15 11:56:13 EST 2012


A local property historian studied the several blocks which include Amherst's Town Hall and points eastward and found that a near majority of the surviving historic buildings in that area had been moved (often not far, but moved nonetheless) from their original locations during several pulses of development in the community's history.  The same pattern has been showing up throughout Amherst as we look at different areas.  Often older buildings contain structural elements salvaged and reused from still older buildings.  Buildings and sound building materials were too valuable to tear down and throw away in the 18th and 19th centuries, so they were moved and re-used commonly enough that the practice of moving and reusing buildings and their elements itself is a significant historical practice and conveys historical meaning to a building or its constituent parts.  So establishing unchanged in-situ preservation as an absolute criteria for historical significance flies in the face of real history.

This is New England.  We're notoriously thrifty (actually, we're mostly cheap-being thrifty requires a consistent application of foresight and intelligence).  Those who are also possessed of some Scottish ancestry and have parents who survived the Great Depression can raise being cheap to the level of pathology, but never mind.  The point is that New Englanders reuse everything, and have a long and consistent enough tradition of moving and reusing buildings and their elements that that tradition itself possesses and conveys historic significance.  It wasn't until the 20th century and a brief and atypical period of prosperity after WWII that we fully developed our current, heedlessly disposable pattern of economic practice vis-à-vis our built landscape.

I would recommend that your Historical Commission consider designating the preserved and/or conserved and/or reproduced panels as constituting preservation or mitigation, in direct proportion to how extensively the auto dealer contributes to the preservation and conservation of the panels, and thereby helps to mitigate their removal.  Ask for full historical documentation of the existing building prior to any demolition.  Ask them to help pay for some aspects of moving, conserving, reproducing, and interpreting the panels in their new setting.  If a majority of the moved panels are preserved/conserved originals, then in their new setting they should be considered to be significant artifacts of the community's history, worthy of protection and recognition.

Jonathan Tucker
Planning Director
Amherst Planning Department
4 Boltwood Avenue, Town Hall
Amherst, MA  01002
(413) 259-3040
tuckerj at amherstma.gov<mailto:tuckerj at amherstma.gov>



From: masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu [mailto:masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu] On Behalf Of Marcia Starkey
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 10:54 AM
To: 'MHC MHC listserve'
Subject: [MassHistPres] determining integrity

Hello all,

The Greenfield Historical Commission is discussing an anticipated demolition of an inventoried Main Street Moderne building built as an auto dealership in 1927. (GRE 127)  The MHC Recon. Survey notes its cast relief panels on the façade which depict transportation scenes of the period.  These are now fragile and partially eroded.

The site also holds a ca. 1892  one story brick factory built by Goodell Bros., part of Greenfield's precision tool industry and a barn, possibly from a farm.  There has been no demolition announcement for these.

The Historical Commission is discussing either removing if possible or reproducing the panels  for use in a new transportation center. Obviously retention of the reliefs in situ is best, but would removal or reproduction classify as preservation or mitigation on the part of the auto dealer? How does the Commission regard them after they are removed from their context?  Are there other examples of this situation?

Marcia Starkey, Greenfield
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