Okay, I have lost a little faith in people. Then again, I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised. Suppose I should explain first. In Memphis, where my parents live, there is a house there called the Hunt-Phelan home. It’s a beautiful old antebellum house. I went through it about a year ago. A lot of the collection is original to the house, and it was just a wonderful restoration of the site.
That beautiful house is being auctioned off on Amazon.com starting tomorrow. Everything in it. From the copy of Boswell’s “Life of Johnson,” to the lot itself. Everything.
Why, you ask? Because the owner couldn’t make enough money to keep it open. Historic sites often have a hard time making money. This one was no exception. The Graceland foundation ran it for a while, but gave up once it determined it couldn’t make it profitable. So the owner said he was going to auction it off. In the grand historic preservation tradition, a group of ladies bound together to try and get the site named to the National Register of Historic Places, and get some grant money. The National Trust gave them a grant of $2500. The women then went to the Memphis city council and asked them to donate money to preserve the house, and with it part of Memphis’s history. The council said no. The same council that had just spent millions on a new minor-league ballpark. One of the council members was heard to remark that why should they save it - it was owned by slaveowners.
My mother sent me the link to the auction tonight, and I actually started to cry. All we have left of the past is our buildings, and if we’re lucky, written materials. The idea that this house, this piece of history, will be gone forever, is distressing. And the fact that the council was willing to let it go hurts even more. Maybe I’m just used to living in Annapolis, where we tried to preserve the city’s history. But to see this happening…my mom said it best. “If that house is auctioned off piece by piece, there is no hope for this godforsaken town.”
Sorry to be so long…just needed to rant on this somewhere.
Well Falc, this may not be very helpful or encouraging, but in Monterey, Many of the old adobes became public spaces, such as the Stokes Adobe, which is now a restaurant. The original building is there, but it’s all new inside. HOWEVER, the city did place a sign stating in front when it was built, by who, and what role it played in the city’s history. It may not have all the old furniture, and things from the family that originally owned it, but the building is still there. (Many of the old adobes no longer have their original interiors, just the outsides. Another is a bar, others are restaurants)
I am so sorry to hear about this Falcon, although I got to say that it seems like a typically “Memphis” thing to do. Did they ever build that monstrosity of a ball park downtown? I remember when they opened Hunt-Phelan house to the public…now I feel guilty that I never made it down there to visit
It costs a lot to maintain a historic home or building in pristine condition. Opening it to the public costs even more. And we haven’t even addressed the initial cost of restoring it.
Local communities are reluctant to throw money at projects like this as are corporate sponsors (Visit the First Union Independence Hall!). Private benefactors are the best bets for historic buildings.
In a perfect world, all significant buildings would be preserved as they were for future generations. In the real world, we’ll just have to accept what can be done with the monies avalable today.
I would have loved to have seen the Reading Teminal preserved in Philly. But it was incorporated into the new Convention Center there and now boasts a Hard Rock Cafe. At least we still have the old train station’s restored facade frowning down on Market Street.
How sad. I love historical places. Charleston is one of my favorites, although it got hit pretty hard by one of the hurricanes and they did lose some of the homes. I think that preserving our history is very important. It’s a reminder of where we came from. You would think that they could come up with the funding to preserve the old homes. It’s not like there are that many of them left any more.
