Dismantling History

I love old buildings; 

you've probably already figured that out about me.

 Image courtesy of FreeFoto

 

While to outsiders the Artist and I own this century home, we look upon ourselves more as caretakers, custodians of history if you like. After suffering from neglect and modernization, we're doing our part to conserve this old farmhouse, to ensure that another 150 years from now, it will still be here as a living artifact of rural life and a testimony to those first settlers of this area, who carved a life for themselves out of the vast forest. It's an incredible responsibility and not one that we take lightly. We have our work cut out for us and it will, undoubtedly, be many years before we can sit back and relax with only the thoughts of general routine maintenance on our minds rather than renovations but nonetheless we do it wholeheartedly and we thank our lucky stars for the opportunity to experience this life of ours, in the country.

The country with it's old farmhouses, barns, sheds, chicken coops and corn cribs isn't the only place full of history. The city has it's share too but like old barns that seem to be torn down more often than not, the city also has it's fair share of misdeeds when it comes to being responsible caretakers of heritage buildings. This week, a nearby city to the old farmhouse has been in the news, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.

What do you think of when you think of a city that spawned the Great One, the invention of the telephone and the birthplace of someone as special as, say, my late grandmother? I think of heritage...imagine if that first phone call had never been placed? I think of drama...imagine if the Great One had never been drafted? I think of life...imagine if my grandmother had never been born? There's much more to this city and it's unique history from its Neutral Indian settlement in the 17th century to its ties to the American Revolution through it's namesake Joseph Brant. Volumes and volumes of a rich and vibrant history had been written long before the land around this old farmhouse had been eyed for farming.

In that city, around the same time that the plans were purchased to build our old farmhouse, 41 buildings were built, an eclectic streetscape now home to buildings boasting a ripe old age of 150-170 years. Buildings that predate our country's confederacy, along a street where Alexander Graham Bell once strolled as he no doubt mulled over his work. Buildings that as of this week began to come down.

Image from Wikipedia Commons: Balcer

 Go here to see a wonderful detailed graphic of 'Bell's' streetscape.

The argument, if you can call it that, is that too little interest has come too late, that these buildings have been neglected for almost thirty years and that if they are worth protecting, something should have been done about them years ago. Some say they are too far gone to restore. Some say otherwise. It's easy to blame past leaders, past owners and while, yes, certainly something should have been done about these heritage keepsakes long ago, pointing fingers through a time machine is just an easy way of getting out of doing the tough, unpopular job of tackling restoration.While preservation is always the first choice, restoration should surely be a prize worthy second choice. Not unlike my grandmother, without sounding flippant, once they're gone no amount of money will bring them back.

 Brantford Expositor

And while I find all of this disappointing and misguided, what I find truly disheartening is what this teaches our children. We can educate our kids about the three R's - reduce, reuse, recycle but we're not practicing what we preach. We're clearly demonstrating that we continue to live in a throw away society where newer is better and history is not an important link to our future. As my high school history teacher once said, 'How do you know where you're going, if you don't know where you've been? Should I expect more from a city that tore down the building where Bell made his first phone call? Probably not.

~Be well and mindful of your history friends~