[MassHistPres] Buying a Home with Historical Significance

[Ellen St.Sure]

To Pamela (as well as Sara Wermiel, Michael Roughan, Gwen Miller and Garrett Laws who have already replied to her) :

I think it is time for a serious practical discussion about our old houses and what we should do to document their histories (together with information on their early occupants). Doing the research to develop reliable histories can be enormously time-consuming–and beyond the skills of amateur house-sleuthers. Local volunteers can be trained to do some of the work but experienced professionals must be involved at least as overseers. To take on this task, towns should view their house-history projects as fairly costly but ultimately valuable contributions which will provide multiple long-term benefits.  

Once we have thoroughly researched our old house histories, we should use them to reach out to our communities in all sorts of ways. The histories should be made available (both paper and electronic copies) to old house owners as well as realtors marketing old houses, to organizations interested in hosting open houses or house tours, to local schools which might use them to stimulate students' interest in their town's history, and to libraries where the histories could be made easily available for browsing as well as study.  

At present, most town-wide house research efforts appear to be undertaken primarily to provide information for MHC files or to pursue demolition delays–activities which do not effectively motivate the substantial efforts necessary to develop interesting and useful house histories. 

It's time to rethink both the methods and purposes of developing such histories.

Ellen St. Sure
   Archivist, Town of Brewster
estsure at comcast.net

On Feb 2, 2016, at 1:38 PM, "Lyons, Pamela" <plyons at city.waltham.ma.us> wrote:

> Q: When a home is purchased that has Historical Significance, does your city or town notify the buyer about the historic significance and possibly then provide them with some history on the house,  perhaps some ways to preserve the historic feel and look to the house etc? Is there a way to do this, a way to provide a buyer with more information to preserve the history within the city/town? Do any of your cities or towns implement anything like this?
>  
> Waltham Historical Commission
>  
> Regards,
>  
> Pamela Lyons
> Waltham Historical Commission
> Principal Office Assistant
> Email: PLyons at city.waltham.ma.us
> Phone: 781-314-3389
> Arthur Clark Government Center
> 119 School Street
> Waltham, MA 02452
>  
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