On Fri, 1 May 1998, MDK10 wrote:

> I'd love to find out how other preservationeers got into all this in the
> first place.

I think I described this process when I had that long discussion with
Bruce about "modern" architecture: when I was growing up in the 1960s, all
the nice buildings in Lansing and East Lansing were being destroyed and
replaced with concrete and glass banalities.

Another perspective on Henry Ford: he was openly racist and anti-Semitic.
He hated jazz because it represented, to him, an African influence.  In
response to this, he tried to re-popularize old time country dancing.

With Ford money and energy, a vanishing world was reinvigorated, at least
a little.  Old tunes and dances (on the verge of being lost and forgotten)
were documented, demonstrated, and *danced*.  A dancing-master was hired
and given a place of honor at Greenfield Village.  And a wonderful venue,
Lovett Hall, was built for folkdances and still serves that function.

I have not been "in" Greenfield Village since I was a child, but I have
been to Lovett Hall (behind the Henry Ford Museum) dozens of times for
dances.

Today we deplore Henry Ford's hateful motivations, but we folkdancers owe
him a lot.

                                Larry Kestenbaum

P.S.  Henry's successors in the Ford family have gone to great lengths to
make up for his bigotry, his many friendly gestures toward Adolf Hitler,
etc.  The FoMoCo sponsorship of the unedited presentation of "Schindler's
List" on television is only the most recent example of this.