No Such Thing As Arm Chair History

http://blog.preservationleadershipforum.org/2014/10/02/old-places-learning/#.VDxK0TP9Yw

Fairfax High School (yours truly went here)
Los Angeles, California
fairfax1963.com

Hello Everyone:

After a frustrating few minutes trying to send a writing sample to a prospective employer, yours truly can finally focus on bringing you another installment of our friend Tom Mayes's blog in the Preservation Leadership Forum, "Why Do Old Places Matter?"  Today, the subject is learning.  The first thing that comes to mind when someone says learning is school. Schools are the traditional places of learning but Mr. Mayes posits, "People learn from old places, and they learn information that is not accessible to them in any other way."  What he is referring to is, obviously, old places.  As a child, Mr. Mayes recalls visiting historic sites in his hometown of Salem, North Carolina as a school boy; remembering a "...woman singing Moravian song a cappella in a vaulted and plastered room, and the taste of sugar cake served at the Moravian love feast afterward."  The experience of being that room, listening to that song, and the taste of that cake left with a sense of the historic tradition religious diversity, tolerance, and freedom in the United States.  Historic places provide that sensual (as in senses) experience that enhance our understanding and ability to remember these often complex ideas.

Old Pedestrian Bridge
Old Salem, North Carolina
visitnc.com

Old places, such as the ones in Old Salem, have a specific educational purpose complete with interpretative programs specifically intended to impart a history lesson, using the site as a teaching tool. (See the National Park Service program for "Teaching with Historic Places," which provides lesson plans for teachers)  School trips are wonderful ways to impart lessons not just on history but on also on different cultures and their traditions.  In California, fourth grade students learn about the state's rich history; as part of the lesson, they are taken to one of the twenty-one missions up and down the state.  I remember being taken to Mission San Gabriel as a fourth grader.  While I do not remember anything from that trip or the one I made to Mission San Juan Capistrano, as a high school student, I do remember walking through the grounds, imagining what it was like in the eighteenth century.

Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
Los Angeles, Ca
en.wikipedia.org

Yours truly agrees with Mr. Mayes's point, "...history can be understood at the real place where history actually happened in a way that it can't be understood through documents and books alone."  Places and objects allow a person to experience the event that occurred their through the senses, something that a document or virtual tour cannot do.  Education is one of the traditional roles of historic preservation, supported by policy.  This traditional and oft-undervalued activity continues to be a primary reason why we value and save our old places. (see National Council on Public History, the American Association for State and Local History)  Citing Callie Hawkings, associate director of Programs at President Lincoln's Cottage and Soldier's Home National Monument,

President Lincoln's Cottage and Soldier's Home National Monument
Washington D.C.
nps.gov

Educator at historic sites put considerable time and effort into planning programs that reinforce local and national learning standards.  These standard-based programs demonstrate to classroom teachers that time spent out of the classroom is time well spent.  Most importantly, though, this type of informal learning environment helps cultivate in students a deep appreciation of how the past informs the present and shapes the future beyond what any textbook could achieve. (Hawkins, Callie, e-mail to Tom Mayes, September 22, 2013)

Tom Mayes reports, "In addition to traditional educational programs, there are also less obvious ways that we learn at and through old places.  According to the website for the National Council on Public History,

...Those who don't always remember their high school and college history classes fondly are often the same people who spend their holidays, vacations, and their spare time seeking out history by choice: making pilgrimages to battlefields and memorials, visiting museums, watching television documentaries, volunteering with historical societies, participating in a community history project, and researching family histories. (http://www.ncph.org)

Touro Synagogue
Newport, Rhode Island
rhodeislandhistory.com

Old places are than history lessons, they can serve as forums for related topics.  For example, the Touro Synagogue offers a lesson on religious tolerance.  At fourth President of the United States James Madison's home at Montpelier, in Virginia, we can learn about the principles embodied in the Constitution.  The Lower-East Side Tenement Museum in New York City is a classroom for learning about the immigrant experience.  Finally, mid-twentieth century modern architect Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut is a beautiful case study for architecture and design.  As Mr. Mayes observes, "And we don't just learn about these issues as something in the past, something only about history, but about the way these issues are being discussed, developed, debated, and prodded into the future today."  In fact, without being fully cognizant of it, we absorb information on the way people lived in historic places, what events transpired their, and what were their affect.  History can be pretty sneaky that way.

The Madonna Inn
San Luis Obispo, California
madonnainn.com

About seven years ago, I was driving down to Los Angeles from San Jose, California for Winter break.  As I was pulling into the hotel parking lot, I noticed a sign for the Madonna Inn which, as luck would have it, was right around the corner.  Before I left the next morning, I took a self-guided tour of this historic hotel.  The Madonna Inn has been around since the nineteen fifties and walking around, checking out some of the whacky themed rooms, I could begin to imagine all the motorists stay over for a night.  The honeymooners staying in the "Honeymoon" suite, sleeping on the heart-shaped bed (really).  As kitschy as it is, it is a testament to California's restless spirit.  The idea of traveling the open road, free as the breeze.

The Rabinsky House
Tel Aviv, Israel
en.wikipedia.org

 Although we've mostly looked at places that accessible    to the public that are specifically geared to learning,    however, there are places not open to the public that  still serve an educational purpose.  The first place that  comes to mind is the White City in Tel Aviv, Israel.  It  is not a city in the literally sense, rather, it is a collection  of apartment buildings designed by European and  Israeli architects in the nineteen twenties and thirties in  central Tel Aviv.  These apartment buildings are still  inhabited by singles and families but they offer a  stunning lesson in how architecture is used to create an  identity for a fledgling nation.  In one respect, the  choice of Bauhaus inspired design was no accident.  Many of the architects responsible for these apartment  buildings studied at the Bauhaus.  Another way to understand it, the choice of Bauhaus-inspired architecture can be viewed as a conscious attempt to visually present a modern nation coming into being.

I could find other examples, facts, and ideas about how people can learn from old places.  The good news is the lessons learned from old places is translating into new and constructive ways.  Thanks to the internet, mobile apps, and good old Wikipedia, we can learn about old places and their impact on their surrounding communities with a tap of a finger.  However, if you want to truly learn about an old place, you have to experience it for yourself.  There is no such thing as arm chair histoy.