A story appeared in the Morning Call today on some of the historical buildings and historical structures that are located in Easton's West Ward. A more detailed story on the same topic appeared in the Express Times. Included in this area is one of Pennsylvania's first power plants.
That got me thinking - why do we preserve? Why should we care?
Frankly, the reasons are too numerous to get into in a short blog entry, so I'll try to keep it to bullet points.
- Historical preservation increases property values.
- Historically preserved buildings are often more energy/heat efficient than their modern counterparts.
- Districts with historical components often become tourism locations.
- Historically preserved properties provide a regionally distinctive flavor that differentiates one area of the country from the next.
- It is often less expensive to preserve and rehabilitate already existing structures than to build new ones.
- It is more environmentally sensitive to rehabilitate than to demolish and rebuild.
- Historical preservation is a value statement. It demonstrates that a community cares about its past, and if it cares about the past, then it almost certainly cares about the future.
- http://news.ufl.edu/2006/12/20/preservation/
- http://www.preservationnation.org/
- http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=512&mode=2&objID=1426
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