[MassHistPres] Seeking questions to ask in surveying members and friends of the Medfield Historical Society about increasing local interest

Thu Feb 25 13:03:57 EST 2016

Interesting discussion and ideas being generated!  Our experience in Somerville, however, gives me cause for optimism for reversing this perceived trend.  Here there has been what I often refer to as 'a sea change' in attitude, since I started working here in 1980 as a Community Planner.  Allow me to share some of our history, in the hope that it may be helpful to generating more ideas for Medfield and other communities in Mass.  At the time I was one of a few who was constantly fighting the battle to save, and where feasible, adaptively reuse older buildings, especially surplus elementary schools, stressing their value to the neighborhoods in which they resided, as well as to the City's overall special character.

Around the same time in the early 80's, the City sponsored the research and writing of a wonderful book called Beyond the Neck:  The History and Architecture of Somerville, MA by Carole Zelllie, with research help from Peter Stott, who fortunately still thrives, and is working at the MHC.  We disseminated this book by selling it in as many local venues as we could find willing.  This included bookstores (still existed!), all of our branch libraries, selected banks and real estate offices, and even Somerville Lumber (remember that family-owned precursor to Home Depot?).  We were so successful that we updated the book in 1990, and it has since gone out of print many years ago.  The book, however, was invaluable and certainly helped to inspire that kind of appreciation of older buildings, and led to countless more residents, especially the old timers, taking a second look around them.

Since then, Somerville has surveyed over a 1,000 buildings and sites, adopted a Local Historic Districts (LHD) Ordinance, established a Historic Preservation Commission that currently oversees over 350 LHDs, including our pioneering single-building districts, and obtained DOI approval of numerous National Register properties in Multiple Resource Areas City-wide.  We are in the process of pursuing National Register designation of multiple commercial and industrial buildings, so owners can benefit from significant tax credits and save them from the customary ways of our not so distant past -- total demolition and clearance for ugly modern boxes!  We have also adopted a Demolition Review Ordinance in 2002 with a 9 month review period, and are working on major revisions to our 1990 updated zoning ordinance, both of which were designed to help protect and build upon our older building stock.

To complement and advance all of these efforts, the Preservation Commission and its Staff over the past 3 decades has undertaken extensive development of heritage education materials and outreach to the local residents.  Activities have included regular walking tours in different parts of the City, annual re-enactment of significant historical events (e.g. First Flag Raising on Prospect Hill and Paul Revere's Ride on Patriot's Day), a Preservation Awards Program (20th anniversary this past year!) to recognize owners who have done fine exterior work, a Docent Program for our 1804 cemetery, and various talks and exhibits at our local museum and businesses to highlight the community's historic assets.  In addition, we sponsor a full array of historic events for May Preservation Month, by collaborating with other local organizations, such as the Arts Council, BIke Committee, environmental groups, and the Library staff.  This is key to enabling us to reach out to many different demographic, age, and interest groups who might otherwise be unlikely to consider "local history" worthy of any attention.

And lastly, but to my mind perhaps most significantly as you infer in Medfield, we are continually trying to find ways to engage our local school children, from the elementary to the high school level, in historic activities.  Successful ways to date have included classroom field trips to local historic sites, encouraging their participation and appropriate dressing for historic re-enactment events, working with the HS art and CAD students and teachers on Preservation Award drawings for the owners, and forming a Local History Club at the HS that is invited to actively play a part in a variety of historic enrichment programs, such as a Colonial Fair at a park on Patriot's Day, a "Ghosts of Somerville" event at our historic cemetery in October, and a Historic Clothing Fashion Show at the local museum at holiday time.  Without the youths' awareness, and hopefully ultimate appreciation, of what is special about their community's landscape and streetscape, we will not be able to continue building on our recent progress in developing more "guardians of the past skillfully adapting to future needs" here in Somerville.

Please forgive the length of this response, but thought our amazing transformation here in an older and not economically affluent community (est. 1842) provides both cause for optimism and some ideas worth considering.

cheers,  Brandon

J. Brandon Wilson
Executive Director

Somerville Historic Preservation Commission
City Hall
93 Highland Avenue
Somerville, MA 02143

(617)625-6600 ext. 2532
bwilson at somervillema.gov
www.somervillema.gov/departments/historic-preservation-commission

From: masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu [mailto:masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu] On Behalf Of dgkalman4 at cs.com
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2016 10:01 AM
To: jade at heartwoodrestoration.com; lee at leewright.net; davidftemple at yahoo.com
Cc: masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Seeking questions to ask in surveying membersand friends of the Medfield Historical Society

How about walking tours of local sites and/or historic districts. I have been on this tpe of tour and found that people of all ages visit places(some around the corner from where they live) and get a better appreciation of the history and buildings in their neighborhood.
David Kelman
Keller Williams Realty
dgkalman4 at cs.com<mailto:dgkalman4 at cs.com>
617 388 0793

-----Original Message-----
From: heartwood <jade at heartwoodrestoration.com<mailto:jade at heartwoodrestoration.com>>
To: Lee Wright <lee at leewright.net<mailto:lee at leewright.net>>; David Temple <davidftemple at yahoo.com<mailto:davidftemple at yahoo.com>>
Cc: Masshistpres Members <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu<mailto:masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>>
Sent: Thu, Feb 25, 2016 9:22 am
Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Seeking questions to ask in surveying membersand friends of the Medfield Historical Society
one idea pops into my head....have schools (elementary and junior) send out notices on an annual basis to parents inviting them to visit an historic site with their child/children...perhaps the school could sponsor a site or two (no financial obligation) who, in turn, offers a discount to the visiting families...I remember riding a bus all the way from billerica to boston to visit and the science museum in the 60’s and I still recall ‘spooky’ the owl and the cube of clear salt I purchased 50 years ago!  sure made an impression on me....

I think it’s so important and exciting for children to learn more about how people lived a century or two ago...where did they live, sleep, eat, work?   what kind of toys did kids play with?  how did they travel to school?  what kind of clothes did they wear?  learn about the evolution of house hold amenities....

david, how about a big ‘I love the medfield historical society’ button for kids after their visit and a bumper sticker for the parent? do you have photos of schools or other municipal buildings with children in them?  kids relate to kids...

...jade mortimer
heartwood window restoration

From: Lee Wright<mailto:lee at leewright.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 23, 2016 10:30 PM
To: David Temple<mailto:davidftemple at yahoo.com>
Cc: Masshistpres Members<mailto:masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Seeking questions to ask in surveying membersand friends of the Medfield Historical Society

David’s question brings to mind, ultimately, the question of how to engage more people in history and historic preservation.  This is an important topic, and I'm interested to hear what others have to say.  The timing is also notable.  There was research reported earlier today about the decline in visits to historic sites: http://humanitiesindicators.org/content/indicatordoc.aspx?i=101.

Here’s one quote from the research:

 With each birth cohort, Americans of all ages have been less likely to visit historic sites. For example, those born from 1938 to 1947 had a 45% likelihood of having visited a historic site in the previous 12 months when they were ages 35–44, while those who were born in the 1968–1977 period had only a 23% likelihood of having visited a historic site when they were the same age.

We’ve probably all seen this to some degree.  The data just underscore the magnitude of the challenge.

Regarding what can be done, surveys are a fine idea, and the AASLH has a program called StEPS http://tools.aaslh.org/steps/ that may be worth investigating.  (It does come with a price tag that is beyond the budget of our local all-volunteer historical society in Marlborough.)

In terms of changes to programming or communications, I think, generally, folks have a difficult time articulating something new or different.  (There’s the famous Henry Ford quote, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”)  You might find good ideas in what others small history organizations, in our area and others, have done.  The AASLH site (http://www.aaslh.org/) has case studies, and I’ve compiled case studies and other resources at The History List (TheHistoryList.com/resources<http://thehistorylist.com/resources>).

In the fall of 2009 our historical society held what we called an “Idea Exachange” and it was attended by members of several smaller historical societies throughout New England.  Each organization presented one innovative idea. Perhaps it’s time for another.

—  Lee Wright  |  The Marlborough Historical Society  |  The Marlborough Historical Commission  |  The History List  |  History Camp

On Feb 23, 2016, at 4:11 PM, David Temple <davidftemple at yahoo.com<mailto:davidftemple at yahoo.com>> wrote:

At last night’s board meeting, we decided to conduct a survey whose answers might help us broaden the reach and appeal of the Medfield Historical Society and help draw in more  members and volunteers, especially younger people.

Perhaps others on MassHistPres have conducted surveys for similar purposes. If you’ve done one in the not-too-distant past, would you share the questions – and if possible, a summary of the answers you got?  And any wisdom you derived from the experience?

As always, I will share responses I get with this group.

In your reply, please include my original message.

David F. Temple
President, Medfield Historical Society
Co-chair, Medfield Historical Commission
300 South Street
Medfield, MA 02052
508-359-2915
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