USA Today
June 2, 2003

'Preservationism' on the march in USA

By Maria Puente, USA TODAY

CONCORD, Mass. — American history is thick on the ground here — but then so are the commuter cars on the roads and the corporate jets in the air.

This is the place where "the shot heard round the world" rang out in 1775, when a ragtag corps of colonial farmers stood their ground against the mighty British army and launched the American Revolution. Today, you'd be hard-pressed to hear a cannon shot, what with the noise of modern life all around. (Related item:New sites join endangered list.)

Sometimes, the tour guides at the North Bridge, where the Minutemen met the redcoats and the redcoats ran, have to pause in their retelling of the stirring tale — until the jets pass by on their way into Hanscom Field airport a few runway lengths away. On parts of Battle Road, where the two infantries skirmished, cars and trucks speed by on what used to be a tree-lined country lane.

Just another day in 21st-century America, where the present abuts the past and the two happily co-exist? Maybe not. Because this is the place where another kind of American battle is being fought, one that pits the growing national zeal for historic preservation against the forces of growth, economic development and sprawl.

No matter who ultimately wins this particular fight in Concord, the larger issue is already a winner. In fact, you could say America is in the midst of a renaissance of "preservationism": More people are visiting preserved historic sites, more people are restoring historic buildings, more people are watching television shows about restoring historic buildings.

"It was always thought of as a fairly elitist activity but it's coming into its own, becoming mainstream," says Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for His- toric Preservation, the congressionally created organization that protects national treasures.

Endangered Sites in Spotlight

So far, here at the 44-year-old Minute Man National Historical Park, preservationists have the advantage: On Thursday the trust put the park and the surrounding communities of Concord, Lexington, Bedford and Lincoln on its annual list of 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. The trust says they and the estimated 1,000 registered historic sites in the area are threatened by operations at Hanscom, which mostly serves corporate and business-related aviation.

You could dismiss this as just a publicity stunt, as supporters of the airport do. The Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Hanscom, says the airport is not that noisy, is not growing and is not a threat to historic sites. The designation "is not based on any data or analysis — it doesn't change the facts," spokesman José Juves says.

But consider this: More than 145 sites have appeared on the trust's most-endangered lists since the first one was issued in 1988 — and only one of those sites has been lost. "All Americans should have a say in the future of (this area)," says Anna Winter, director of Save Our Heritage, a local activist group. "This designation will bring it into the spotlight."

Preservation in general is increasingly in the spotlight. In the early years, America didn't have much patience for preservation. It wasn't until more than 50 years after George Washington's death that anyone thought about preserving his house at Mount Vernon. First lady Jackie Kennedy brought attention to the cause with her restoration of the White House and later the campaign to save Grand Central Terminal in New York. But it wasn't until 1994 that the growing power of the movement was on full display, when preservationists, including famous historian David McCullough, helped put the kibosh on Disney's plan to build a "history theme park" near Civil War battlefields in the Virginia countryside.

"This is more than just a passing fad. It's a signpost of how any nation matures, and people 'get it' in a way they didn't 15 years ago or 30 years ago," says John Boyer, a longtime preservationist and director of the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Conn., which is in the midst of a loving restoration.

McCullough, a leader of the anti-airport campaign here, says interest in preservation has grown almost by geometric proportions. "People may not know as much history as they should, but they sense and react if the history of their country is somehow being destroyed," he says.

Besides, preservation has become kind of cool. It's a cause that attracts historians, academics and politicians of all stripes, yes — but also celebrities, sports heroes, supermodels, media heavyweights and performers of all kinds. Don Henley, Hal Holbrook, Sharon Stone, Kathy Ireland, Bryant Gumbel, Christopher Reeve, Paul Newman — all and more have been associated with preservation causes in recent years; many have been enlisted by the trust and cable's HGTV to promote historic preservation on television this year.

"We're going to help make it cool — that's part of the goal," says Burton Jablin, president of HGTV, which donated $1 million to a partnership with the trust to promote preservation in its Restore America series over the next year. The network also is spending more millions to produce and air one-minute celebrity public service announcements to promote the restoration of important historic sites around the country. Holbrook, who is known for portraying Mark Twain on stage, is featured in the show about the Mark Twain House, and country singer Jo Dee Messina taped a vignette on the Bodie Island Lighthouse in Nags Head, N.C., which has been restored as an example of classic American lighthouse architecture.

"The problem is we live in a disposable culture, where everything new is good and everything old is worth nothing," Holbrook says. "I ask, 'What is so great about the new?' "

Still, he says, there are positive signs. "There are people who have gotten very determined about this. There is a very strong and surprisingly powerful movement in the country to preserve, and I notice it as I travel around (for theatrical appearances)."

If celebrities can get even a few of their fans to pay attention, so much the better, says rock star Henley, founder of an ongoing campaign to protect Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond and Walden Woods here from development. "We seem to be in a celebrity-obsessed culture, and sometimes, unfortunately, it requires involvement of a celebrity to bring appropriate attention to matters like this."

Does Movement Have Support?

Henley, who opposes Hanscom airport as a threat to Walden, is worried about preservationists' chances of winning. "I don't want to say it's impossible, but based on my past experience, I'm extremely wary of how it will come out unless there's an enormous hue and cry from the public."

But maybe he's being too pessimistic. Consider some signs of the popularity of the preservationist impulse:

• Money. Despite a weak economy, the trust recently concluded its five-year Campaign for America's Historic Places fundraising effort with $135 million in the kitty — $30 million more than its goal.

• Ratings. Besides HGTV, the History Channel, Discovery, A&E, The Learning Channel and PBS also run numerous shows on preservation. HGTV's Jablin says its commitment is based on both altruism and a desire to build its brand.

• Taxes. A 27-year-old federal program that gives developers a tax credit to restore historic buildings has grown steadily in recent years — from 1,036 projects in 1998 to 1,200 projects in 2002 — as more communities across the country try to lure residents back to urban neighborhoods, according to the National Park Service, which administers the program.

• Politics. Preservation is a bipartisan issue. George W. Bush, who promised to sweep away all of Bill Clinton's programs, nonetheless kept Save America's Treasures, which works with the trust to rescue historic sites. First lady Laura Bush is even honorary chair of a gala the trust and HGTV are hosting Wednesday to honor preservationists, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former first lady (and possible future Democratic presid ential candidate) who made the Treasures program one of her signature causes while she was in the White House.

The Bush administration also found a way to make preservation a "twofer"
issue: Last week, the Department of the Interior gave the Old North Church in Boston, where Paul Revere got the signal that the British were headed for Lexington and Concord, a $317,000 preservation grant to repair and restore church windows.

Thus, Bush makes points with preservationists and bolsters another of his
policies: sending more taxpayer dollars to religious groups that offer social-service programs.

The Conflict Continues

Meanwhile, back in Concord, the latest battle of Lexington and Concord rages on in volleys of statistics and surveys and angry letters to the editor. Both sides are bringing out the big guns.

"No community is more sensitive to historic sites than Massachusetts, but we also have a state to run," says pilot John Williams Jr., president of the Massachusetts Business Aviation Association. "This is a matter of striking an appropriate balance between preservation and economic growth and prosperity."

That balance should favor the historic sites, or the past will be overwhelmed by the cacophony of the present, McCullough says.

"Of course we have traffic and jets and cell phones, but maybe for a moment in a designated place that is truly where great events took place, we might somehow hold that back enough to make contact with a vanished time and those people."

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