In a message dated 2/19/99 2:48:02 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

<< On Jumel Terrace, a little dead-end row of (black-occupied) wooden houses
in
 upper Manhattan, there was a big, award-winning (white-preservation-group-
 paid-for) "restoration", which replaced all the cheap asbestos shingles, the
 crummy aluminum storm doors, the jalousy windows - which had accreted in
great
 variety over time - with a uniform "correct" paint-schemed repro-clapboard.
>>

Maintaining that everything done to a building is historic has a philosophical
purity but I find it doesn't work very well in my America, which went through
a period especially in the 1950's-60's of very bad alterations and urban
renewal, etc.

Why not remove really unsympathetic alterations that destroy the original, or
even subsequent but valuable, design?  Why not replace porches (Jumel Terr.)
that were unfortunately ripped off the facades in a less enlightened period?
Not all fabric is significant, valuable, or worthy of preservation.  Some of
the most interesting debates are those involving what to keep and what to let
go.

For example, a project of mine, a 2-story frame 1806 cow-herders' house, one
of the first built in the region,  has an  1880's wing,  went through a major
1939 renovation, and has several 1950's additions, including a one bay second
floor front addition and a two-story side addition.   The 1950's additions are
unsympathetic to the original but they are historic and relate to the house
when it was used as a dude ranch.  They were not built very well and they need
a lot of costly repair.  What do you keep?  What do you spend money on?

It's easy to say keep it all, but what if that means that 75% of the funds
available go to restoring the 1950's addition.   Years ago, preservationists
removed too much historic fabric to restore some mythical original structure,
but saving absolutely everything with no judgment isn't the answer either.

To speak to the actual topic under discussion, I also think it's a shame that
our historic towns and tourist destinations are becoming all the same.  Maybe
we should start designating cultural treasures, like the Japanese do, but
instead of artisans like potters and fabric dyers, we can preserve mom & pop
hardware stores, drug stores, grocers - historic capitalists.

Mary Dierickx, NYC