Historic Preservation

Why is it that as a society, we tend to value the new and discount the old as less worthy of our attention and effort?

Why must we condemn and destroy creations when they no longer serve what we view to be our current needs?

How much of our past must be obliterated before we realize the error of our judgment?

If you have ever asked yourself these questions or any like them, you may consider yourself to be, to some extent or other a preservationist.

The United States is a young country. It is a country with a spirit of growth, change and expansion. Our forefathers were immigrants whose vision was of a land where life would be better than it had been in the "old country". This is the spirit which makes our nation great. It is the ideal which dictates that the next generation shall be better-off than the last. It is a marvelous thing. It is also the thing which tends to cause the most harm to the precious reminders of the past. As Americans, we marvel at the new, the bold and the ambitious. We also are the first to toss aside the things we no longer consider to be of any value when something newer and shinier comes along. Unfortunately, this tendency is at its most costly when we dismiss our past by bulldozing our old Main Streets, town halls, theaters, houses, monuments and battlefields. Once gone, they can never be recovered and the best examples of our heritage are destroyed forever. The valuable elements with which we can teach the next generation to appreciate their legacy are irretrievably lost.

Perhaps the best way to state the case for preservation is to quote a great American. His words describe the reason we should all be responsible to protect and defend the significant reminders of our past.

"IN GREAT DEEDS SOMETHING ABIDES. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear, but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls. And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream; and lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their souls".

Bvt. Maj. Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain

Maine at Gettysburg

If you would like to see how you can become involved in historic preservation efforts, visit The National Trust for Historic Preservation and Civil War Preservation Trust. Join me as a member of the CWPT and/or the NTHP and help save our endangered historical sites. An acre of battlefield land is lost every ten minutes to urban sprawl but our efforts are making a difference! Many sites have already been secured and preserved for future generations but many more need our attention and determination.

The best collection of Civil War materials can be seen at the Museum of the Confederacy which was founded by the Confederate Memorial Literary Society. It is located on Clay Street with the White House of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia. I'm proud to be a Sustaining Member of the M.O.C..

You can also see preservation efforts in action at the Pejepscot Historical Society in Brunswick, Maine; conservators of the Joshua L. Chamberlain House.

Special thanks to Erik Jorgensen, Executive Director of the P.H.S., for his comments and inspiration and to the members and volunteers of the Society for their efforts to preserve a national treasure for the rest of us.

Links to National Trust Sites:


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