[MassHistPres] what's in a name?

[Dennis De Witt]

Marcia

Let me share a thought re the term "Historic Preservation Commission"

As you know, Historic Commissions and Historic District Commissions are established under different MGL chapters.  40c allows an LHD commission to merge with and subsume the role of the Historical Commission.

When Brookline became a CLG in the '80s it merged its commissions, in part because we were under the impression we had to do so to become a CLG.  That is now not the case, if it ever was.   We also adopted the name Preservation Commission — in part because we were sick of hearing "Hysterical Commission" yuk yuk!

The effect has been that Brookline has a commission that is fairly good at LHDs, Demo Delays, etc.  Indeed it risks being swamped by its own success.

The downside is that the role of the traditional historical commission has largely been lost — and has been difficult to argue for at budget time.

Altho archival materials and memories need to be "preserved," perhaps the term preservation in the commission's name implicitly suggests in our culture that the focus is mostly on buildings and less on their cultural, artifactual, and historical context than once would have been the case.

Altho the Preservation Commission's hard working staff could justifiably shoot me for suggesting this, arguably Brookline would be better served by having both an Architectural Preservation Commission and an Historical Commission.

Dennis De Witt


On Feb 17, 2014, at 12:31 PM, Marcia Starkey <mdstarkey at crocker.com> wrote:

> The Fall 1992 “Preservation Advocate” from MHC included a message from the Chairman which said : Massachusetts is unique in that it provides for a municipal body – local historical commissions– to carry out preservation planning at the local level.”   Two thoughts: is Massachusetts still unique as bodies authorized by state law? and is the title “historical commission” (rather than “historic preservation commission” ) still preferable?  
>  
> Marcia Starkey
> Greenfield Historical Commission         
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