reviews >> A Richer Heritage: Historic Preservation in the Twenty-first Century

A Richer Heritage: Historic Preservation in the Twenty-first Century
Edited by Robert E. Stipe
570 Pages, The University of North Carolina Press

In 1966, Congress passed the National Historic Preservation Act, which catapulted the preservation movement forward from isolated efforts of concerned groups to save significant buildings to a coordinated national system.

Museum houses, like Mount Vernon and Monticello, were the norm for historic preservation for much of the first half of the 20^th century. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act allowed a broadening of preservation through a more unified system of Federal, State, and Local government services. Since 1966, the preservation movement has seen an inclusion of whole neighborhoods, businesses, and landscapes.

A Richer Heritage: Historic Preservation in the Twenty-first Century is a series of essays written by leading scholars in the field of historic preservation. The goal of the collection is to recap the current state of historic preservation in America, examine the issues and problems it faces, and recommend new directions for the future.

The essays are extremely academic to the point of being laborious to read. In its defense, the editor, Robert E. Stipe, says in the preface that it’s a textbook for those who want to enter the field of preservation and for those already active in it. While this book is not for every pro-preservationist, there is much information that applies directly to Middle Georgia.

Of particular concern to our community is the idea of urban context. In Chapter Four, authors Lina Cofresi and Rosetta Radtke write, “In planned cities…, the street layout or pattern is, in fact, the oldest surviving remnant of the concept on which it was founded…Extreme care must be taken not to taint these important historic qualities by closing lanes, modifying the size of streets, or reworking the shape of medians, parks, and squares to facilitate traffic flow.”

In Chapter Nine, Kathryn Welch Howe discusses the dramatic increase in adaptive use and commercial rehabilitation projects by private developers. She sites recent studies that demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of public tax and funding subsidies to preservation efforts because the costs are offset by tax revenues and employment gains. Howe emphasizes the need for a strong planning and zoning (P & Z) board in her passage, “The real estate investor will be most interested in historic property opportunities where there is certainty within the developmental process.” The developers need to know up front what will be allowed and what is unwelcome.

A Richer Heritage: Historic Preservation in the Twenty-first Century would not be an exciting addition to our personal libraries, but we might consider sending copies to the P & Z board, the Chamber of Commerce, and the city council. Historic preservation has improved the city of Macon aesthetically and financially. Even more gains could be made if historic preservation was used wisely and this is the textbook to teach us how.