[MassHistPres] Buying a Home with Historical Significance

[Lee Wright]

Ellen raises a great point.

I’ve long advocated for modern platforms and tools that (1) make the information easier to collect, update, and enrich; and (2) make the information more easily available to more people.

In the case of our nothing-special old house, the difference between what’s in the “official” record which is now years and years out of date, and the information we have—photos and newspaper clips from the early 1900s and the mid-1900s—even a barn warming invitation from 1918—all make it much more interesting than what one would find in the official record.

We’ll pass this along when we sell our house, of course, but the larger point is this: We can and must expand the interest in preservation.  For the overwhelming majority of people, it won’t happen on its own.  

— Lee Wright  |  Marlborough

> On Feb 3, 2016, at 5:27 PM, Ellen St.Sure <estsure at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> 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 <mailto: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 <mailto:PLyons at city.waltham.ma.us>
>> Phone: 781-314-3389
>> Arthur Clark Government Center
>> 119 School Street
>> Waltham, MA 02452
>>  
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