[MassHistPres] Boston Globe editorial

[Sara Wermiel]

I’d like to call the attention of listserv members to an editorial in the
Boston Globe last week, “History deserves respect, but overzealousness has a
price.”

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2014/10/13/beverly-loring-hous
e-history-deserves-respect-but-overzealousness-has-price/zXl3z3U0vOZGuuAxQ0e
YeI/story.html

The editorial deals with the sad case of the Loring House in Beverly, a
National Register-eligible property that will be demolished.

The editorial suggests that the Beverly Historic District Commission was
stuck on trivial matters, such as not destroying the house’s façade, and
this drove the owner to a drastic act. 

Yes, zealotry is wrong, but was the BHDC unreasonable? Did it act
improperly? We don’t know, and the Globe doesn’t know, because the Globe
never did any real reporting. Yet it produces an indicting editorial,
essentially warning all historical commissions against doing their jobs.

I wrote a letter to the editor, which I’ll be glad to share with members if
you want to read it. If this editorial bugs you too, I urge you to let the
Globe know.

 

--Sara Wermiel

History of technology/historic preservation consulting

Jamaica Plain, MA

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