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Looking out over the crowd at the Historic Sites
Commission’s Mayor’s Awards for Historic Preservation, I began
to think that maybe historic preservation in Springfield has reached the
tipping point, that magical critical mass where the movement just takes off
like an epidemic. At this 15th annual affair, the crowd was bigger than
ever. Two wonderful landmark projects, Union Station and the Elijah Iles
House, have been completed and were recognized. Two rare Culver-stone
houses at North Grand and Patton received awards, as did houses in Enos
Park and the neighborhood west of the Capitol. To those of us who remember
the days when the Springfield City Council and the daily newspaper used to applaud as an
uncaring town routinely demolished historic structures, preservation of old
buildings finally seems to be catching on.
But as I moved through the crowd, talking to
battle-toughened veterans, it became apparent that although the
preservation movement has come a long way, there is reason to be wary.
Every success seems to have its shadow. It’s great that the state
police moved into the old Franklin Life buildings, ensuring their
preservation, but what will happen to the historic, but now disparaged,
armory building they left behind? Springfield College and Benedictine
University won an award for saving the King’s Daughters Home on the
same day it was announced that they are closing the 150-year-old Ursuline
Academy. Because the Iles House is now safely and wonderfully restored, it
only becomes more apparent that the Helmle apartment building, right behind
it on Cook Street, is boarded up and blighting the neighborhood. Fifth and
Sixth streets downtown are in great shape, which serves to emphasize that
Fourth is a street of parking lots and Monroe has too many empty buildings.
There are too many challenges ahead to start talking tipping point.
So we need to keep reminding others, and ourselves,
why preservation makes sense, even when it seems costly and difficult. Don
McLarty, the new architect of the Capitol, reminded us of several
reasons in his remarks at the preservation awards. One is that preservation
is the “ultimate green design.” In a world that is suddenly
catching on to the value of reuse and recycling, people start to see the
value of recycling buildings. As one preservation leader put it, “The
greenest building is the one that already exists.” But the green of
it goes far beyond saving building materials and keeping demolition waste
out of landfills. As one who rehabs residential buildings, I get asked by
my eco-trendy friends whether I’ve ever considered using green
design. No, I tell them, we just put insulation, efficient new furnaces,
and new windows into buildings that have always been leaky before, and then
we sell them to people who will live close to the heart of the city, on
public-transportation routes, rather than in the sprawling suburbs. But
most people still don’t get it: Preservation is good for the
environment. Another practical reason Springfield needs to hear is
that preservation is good for the city’s economy. “The more we
do to preserve and protect history, the more we do to promote
tourism,” McLarty said. History-minded tourists who come to visit the
Lincoln sites quickly ask what else there is to see. Perhaps someday guides
will routinely suggest a stroll to the area just north of the Lincoln
museum, to the historic Edwards Place, and a walking tour of the restored
neighborhood surrounding it.
Preservationists can and should find other practical
reasons for doing what they do, but the best motivators I heard at the
awards event took on a more mystical and spiritual flavor. In various ways,
speakers and restorers said that preserving the old and used keeps our
ancestors alive and reminds us that our town has a past, and a future, and
that we are but stewards for a little while. McLarty quoted the president of the Ohio Historical
Society on this point: “Preserving venerable old buildings and making
them useful for today is certainly an important part of historic
preservation. But it is about so much more. It is about the power of place,
the significance of community, and the stories of people. Simply put, these
places are worth preserving because they are important to people and they
tell us about who we are and from where we come.”
Judith Pensoneau-Feurer, the tireless organizer of
these preservation awards over many years, put it more simply: “When
your children and grandchildren come back to Springfield, they will say,
‘I know where I am.’ That makes us special in the world.”
Contact Fletcher Farrar at ffarrar@illinoistimes.com
This article appears in May 10-16, 2007.
