I will be doing some research on them then writing a bit about them here, hoping to help get them into the right, respectful, hands. Stay tuned!
Monday, September 9, 2019
Coming Soon
Yesterday, I was made aware of some significant historic homes for sale in Tennesee. Some are concerned that these homes could be purchased and gutted or something else done to them that does not respect their history.
Sunday, September 8, 2019
Dust to Dust
On today's podcast, I talked a bit about an old building that had been raised to make way for.....absolutely nothing. Sure, its nice to have open space, but at the price of the loss of an old building? It was supposedly condemned, but many a condemned building has been brought back to life, if not totally restored.
It is said that the land will be used for concerts, a farmer's market, activities and the like. Nice thought, but again, at the cost of an old building that once had a place in the town. And, I guess the fact that right on the very edge of town, not all that far from where the building was, is the fair grounds which is empty 95% of the time. There are bleachers, buildings, parking......everything you need to hold events, farmer's markets, concerts.....Hmmmmm......
It was also said that they talked about saving the facade of the building as sort of a gateway into the event area. However they then decided it wasn't feasible. I then read that they decided it WAS feasible to take down the facade, and rebuild it. Maybe I'm missing something, but how is it less feasible to keep an existing facade and stabilize it for use, than it is to tear it down, clean all the old bricks, because they have decided to use all the original bricks from the facade and all of that old mortar will have to come off, then rebuild the facade exactly as it was, but was not feasible to keep?
As I said, maybe I'm missing something here, but something doesn't sound quite right to me. And it is unfortunate that with all of these old buildings going up for sale in this NY town, it seems that they are being purchased by those who either want to tear them down, re-muddle them or do absolutely nothing except put high rents on them.
Where I live now, some people bought some old Florida buildings and promised that they would keep the "Old Florida" character. Guess how these brilliant minds are doing it. By tearing down the real "Old Florida" and putting up new buildings that will supposedly replicate "Old Florida". HUH??? People tried to fight it, but the powers that be, even though they had public hearings, really had no interest in hearing what the people had to say, unless it was exactly what THEY wanted to hear.
These buildings were in good shape AND full of boutique shops and little restaurants, some who had been there for years, if not decades. But they are all gone now because a developer decided that the real "Old Florida" buildings had to be replaced with fake "Old Florida" buildings in order to have an "Old Florida" atmosphere. Uh...yeah....sure.... Plus, all of the people who were there lost their livelihoods. Oh, they were invited to come back. But rents were too high. So, there you have it!
It is sad as to what is happening to our old buildings in this country. Yes, many are non descript and some have been left so long, they are truly beyond help. Others may not be historic, but are still in decent shape, so why should they be, basically sent to the landfill for something shiny and new? Maybe developers need to rethink their strategies and instead of destroying more land or more old buildings, use what is already available to them. And don't try to say that you're "saving history" by tearing history down to replace it with reproduction "history". That makes absolutely no sense, especially when the historic buildings were totally usable.
It is said that the land will be used for concerts, a farmer's market, activities and the like. Nice thought, but again, at the cost of an old building that once had a place in the town. And, I guess the fact that right on the very edge of town, not all that far from where the building was, is the fair grounds which is empty 95% of the time. There are bleachers, buildings, parking......everything you need to hold events, farmer's markets, concerts.....Hmmmmm......
It was also said that they talked about saving the facade of the building as sort of a gateway into the event area. However they then decided it wasn't feasible. I then read that they decided it WAS feasible to take down the facade, and rebuild it. Maybe I'm missing something, but how is it less feasible to keep an existing facade and stabilize it for use, than it is to tear it down, clean all the old bricks, because they have decided to use all the original bricks from the facade and all of that old mortar will have to come off, then rebuild the facade exactly as it was, but was not feasible to keep?
As I said, maybe I'm missing something here, but something doesn't sound quite right to me. And it is unfortunate that with all of these old buildings going up for sale in this NY town, it seems that they are being purchased by those who either want to tear them down, re-muddle them or do absolutely nothing except put high rents on them.
Where I live now, some people bought some old Florida buildings and promised that they would keep the "Old Florida" character. Guess how these brilliant minds are doing it. By tearing down the real "Old Florida" and putting up new buildings that will supposedly replicate "Old Florida". HUH??? People tried to fight it, but the powers that be, even though they had public hearings, really had no interest in hearing what the people had to say, unless it was exactly what THEY wanted to hear.
These buildings were in good shape AND full of boutique shops and little restaurants, some who had been there for years, if not decades. But they are all gone now because a developer decided that the real "Old Florida" buildings had to be replaced with fake "Old Florida" buildings in order to have an "Old Florida" atmosphere. Uh...yeah....sure.... Plus, all of the people who were there lost their livelihoods. Oh, they were invited to come back. But rents were too high. So, there you have it!
It is sad as to what is happening to our old buildings in this country. Yes, many are non descript and some have been left so long, they are truly beyond help. Others may not be historic, but are still in decent shape, so why should they be, basically sent to the landfill for something shiny and new? Maybe developers need to rethink their strategies and instead of destroying more land or more old buildings, use what is already available to them. And don't try to say that you're "saving history" by tearing history down to replace it with reproduction "history". That makes absolutely no sense, especially when the historic buildings were totally usable.
Check out my latest podcast
My Saving the History podcast may also be found on RadioPublic, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Breaker. You can also use the link on the right of the page!
My Saving the History podcast may also be found on RadioPublic, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Breaker. You can also use the link on the right of the page!
Friday, September 6, 2019
Things are Happening
It has become an interesting time. I'm having to do something that I never have done before, and that is trying to put a cast together for a TV show on restorations. I have been trying to reach out to various companies in the area, but responses have been sparse. I don't know...perhaps people have used the TV scams for so long, no one believes it when a legit opportunity comes through. But we'll get this going.
I had a talk just yesterday with the production company, and this could be really great for saving old Florida Architecture, and possibly old architecture in other places as well. That said, if your company is involved in restorations or in the restoration process and you'd be interested in participating, I'd love to hear from you. You should be based in Florida....SW Florida ideally, but I am also talking to companies outside of that area as well. If you have interest, please send me a quick email through the "contact" button, along with what your company (or you) does, a link to your website, address and phone, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. If you're not sure whether or not your business would qualify to be considered for the cast, drop me a line anyway, with the requested information, and I'll take a look!
I look forward to hearing from you!
I had a talk just yesterday with the production company, and this could be really great for saving old Florida Architecture, and possibly old architecture in other places as well. That said, if your company is involved in restorations or in the restoration process and you'd be interested in participating, I'd love to hear from you. You should be based in Florida....SW Florida ideally, but I am also talking to companies outside of that area as well. If you have interest, please send me a quick email through the "contact" button, along with what your company (or you) does, a link to your website, address and phone, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. If you're not sure whether or not your business would qualify to be considered for the cast, drop me a line anyway, with the requested information, and I'll take a look!
I look forward to hearing from you!
Podcasts
My new, "Saving the History" podcast can now be found on 6 platforms, including Anchor, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Pocket Casts and RadioPublic!
I will be embedding a player into the webpage soon!
Saturday, August 17, 2019
Thursday, August 8, 2019
Welcome
If you are here, then saving history, no matter where it is, is important to you. I began my work in saving Florida architecture and agriculture history while researching one of my books and I discovered just about all of the places I was trying to locate, no longer existed, and how much of our agriculture we actually have lost here in Florida. With this page, I hope to not only bring notice to the losses here, but the losses everywhere within the United States.
I'll be posting information, new projects, books coming out (written by me) and much more.
Stay Tuned!
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Authentic vs Reproduction...Which Way do You Go????
So, you're redecorating or maybe even restoring a room or the entire house. You know what you want (basically): you know the period yo...
