On Mon, 22 Jun 1998, Michael P. Edison wrote:

> One of my greatest laments and fears is that someday someone will be
> arguing for the historic preservation of Mr. Potato-headed wedgy buildings.

Get used to it.  It won't be long before we're called on to conserve and
interpret 1950s shopping malls, 1960s trailer parks, 1970s condo
complexes.

Many years ago, Charles Peterson, a pioneer preservationist, declared that
nothing worthwhile had been built since 1840.  Eventually he grudgingly
extended that deadline to 1850.  (My apologies to whomever if I have the
name or the quote wrong.)  Growing up in a neighborhood full of
interesting but -- at the time -- totally unappreciated early 20th century
houses, I hated that kind of thinking.

Something that is historically significant and worth preserving is not
necessarily beautiful to our eyes; and the aesthetics get redefined with
each generation anyway.  Something that survives as a unique or unusually
good example of some social or architectural trend of 50 years ago is
going to be deemed worth protecting whether we like it or not.

Another example: East Lansing (Mich.) has a collection of about a dozen
early International Style (or Art Moderne, or something) houses from the
late 1930s and early 1940s.  Most of these are concrete stucco houses,
large and assymetric, with flat roofs, pipe railings, steel casement
windows, etc.  One of my colleagues on the Historic District Study
Committee who most strongly agreed with me in recognizing their
significance also called them "ugly as sin."

As you might have picked up from previous discussions, I am not exactly a
fan of the International Style.  But to me, perhaps because I was 20 years
younger than my colleague, the only ugly ones in the collection were those
whose owners had tried to disguise them with shutters and fake brick.

> Are preservationists, by necessity, elitists? Is it a requirement that we
> see ourselves as more enlightened than everyone else? Are we ever wrong?

No, no, and no. :-)  But that's a discussion for another time.

---
Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
http://www.potifos.com/