Henry Ford's project

Bought historic buildings and shipped them to Michigan

Breton, Canada

reconstruction of a french fort

Humongous train station

almost lost, but saved it to become a visitor's center followed by a mix-use facility

a festival marketplace

Boston, mass.

Restaurants, shopping, tourist attraction

-his house was gone

no description of building- reconstruction would be false

-hired Venturi to create a building outline

-what it looked like up to imagination

art critic who opposed the alterations to buildings

architecture spoke for you

-started a group of women to save Mount Vernon

-had a man speak for them to get donations

-group set out to save other buildings

Frenchman who worked to restore Notre Dame

Sometimes known as "father of preservation"

made significant alterations to buildings

1877

William Morris- advocate of preservation over restoration

Wanted the buildings to be left alone

More interested in vernacular buildings

"anti-scrape society"

-preserving homes of great men

-preserve homes connected to people

-preserved changes to the building

-antiquities was anything old (house, tools, etc)

-owns some historic properties

-wanted to preserve a moment to showcase in a museum

1906

Department of Interior given authority for historic preservation

allowed for the president to establish monuments on public land

-researching the material culture and the everyday life from certain time periods

-recreated very early period rooms

-very thorough in research

furniture exhibit that showed American furniture in an aesthetic light

before: generally american furniture was thought of as bad imitations of British designs

did not show the lifestyle

Society for Preservation of New England Antiquities

(Historic New England)

-major preservation research center

-aquired buildings such as Walter Gropius' house

-open buildings as house museum

Private effort to measure, photograph and describe historic buildings

private group was worried about losing buildings

useful for preservation/restoration

-part of the Department of Interiors

-own some buildings and required to maintain them

Sold to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation

building was almost lost

a single man saved it

foundation wanted to preserve (restore) the building to how Jefferson knew it

-used an art history approach

-most people knew about this exhibit

-interested in nationalism

-showed off American interiors

-first large batch of period rooms

-shipped entire rooms to the museum

local restrictions on altering historic buildings

most large cities will have more than one

boundaries will be drawn around the historic buildings

consist of conforming (historic) and non-conforming (non historic) buildings

type of zoning (have the force of law behind them)

-was intended to keep records

-measured building features such as door and windows

-creeated technical drawings of these features

Old Sturbridge Village

(similar to Deerfield and Coopersfield)

-outdoor museum

-collection of buildings

1936

national policy to preser ve for public use historica sites, buildings, and objects of national significance for the inspiration and benefit of the people

in order to preserve the building, moved the liberty bell to a location across the street

-originally charted by Congress

-citizens organization

-private funding

-own historic properties such as Philip Johnson's Glass House

-anyone can join

-put out a publication

Owned by the DuPont family

interested in fine furnishings and domestic goods

research base- Large Archives and journals

-listing that provides a record

-doesn't include measurements or protect the property

-includes photographs

-used to determine is something is historic, tax credits

-entire districts can be listed

National Historic Presservation act

1966

extended preservation coverage to places of state and local significance

expands the National Register, eastablishes Advisory Council, provides grants to states to use for preservation

-lists landmarks with historical significance 

-significant events that took place a locations

1966

when building roads, it is necesary to pay attention to historic buildings

may not prevent the building from being destroyed, but will slow down the process

-attracted so much attention

-influential people protested the demolition

-important because of who designed it

-was eventually demolished

-labeled areas as slums- bulldozed them to start fresh

-public housing time period

-residents didn't like people calling their homes slums

-broke social ties

documented the diversity of historic buildings

showed that buildings other than just "great houses" had merit

change of hands on space above a short building, which allows for the construction of a taller building above

allows for the construction of a taller building than would normally be allowed

-federal government shall provide leadership

-for restoration, preservation, or rehabilitation you need to prove to the government you are dedicated to it

-period kitchen done for fairs

-people can learne about the past

-many done in the colonial style

-not roped off, people could wander in them

precursor of the Red Cross established around the time of the civil war

begin to start developing stereotypes

from the time period directly

include: legal records, wills, newspaper articles, deeds, photographs, etc.

- photographer interested in studying the past

-staged photographs with people in period clothing

-people hung these photos on their walls

-photographs showed nostalgic views

-advertisements might tell building activities

-notice of sales

-notice of competitions

-reports of fires

-social activities

-descriptions of new buildings

-find target dates

What people have already learned about the subject

may or may not be correct

books and magazines written about something, but not contemporary (not with the time period)

-many on architecture

-prescriptive advice: how author thinks it should be done

-if many authors are against something it's probably what people are doing

-only a primary source for the year it happened and was written

may have to search more than one county

work backwards to find information about building

can offer information about construction dates

price increase (beyond normal inflation) may indicate additions or improvements

Census

(population, industrial, agricultural, social statistics)

-usually written as census taker went door to door

-got more detailed with more infomation over time

what someone tells you about a building

things they might tell you: what it looked like, how it was used

if possible, record interview

prepare a set of questions

sanborn maps ( most popular )

recorded: location, materials, roofing, porches, number of stories, locations of out buildings and wells, use of building

-most list two ways- name or street address

-tells if person is owner or renter

-occupation of building

-if a business at the address

-streets may have been renumbered

Part of probate process (but not everyone was probated: women/poor)

furniture terminology varied and different from today

Value was difficult to determine ( varied with age condition and inflation)

-don't exist for all people

-letters, diaries, bills, scrapbooks, etc

-may or may not have photographs

-may firms didn't keep their plans

-children would cut out scraps of things and paste them in a scrapbook

paintings, watercolors, prints, sketches, photographs

paintings are not usually accurate, but most other visual forms will be

William Nutting's photographs=not accurate