Are we losing our history?
Route 15
I've always been intrigued by old buildings, houses, etc. I even bought an old house because I can't stand new ones. Lately, I've turned that life-long love of
the old into a semi-hobby-going to sites about to be demolished and (probably trespassing), taking a lot of photographs.
This story, along with another,
Wildwoods are frightening to me. Once something is gone, it's gone. I realize there has to be 'progress', but it seems to come at a total disregard for heritage, history, culture. While some towns, like Cape May, NJ, embrace their heritage and make strides to revive it, others, like Wildwood, seem to want to dump it.
I grew up in a small town next to the Delaware River. We were known as hicks, but the town has a wealth of history. Thomas Payne lived there, Joseph Bonaparte (Napoleon's brother) had an estate there. It was home to one of the oldest military schools in the country and is home to the first school founded by Clara Barton. But the historic homes back when I was growing up there had become rentals, divided into apartments, cheaply sided and run down. In the past 15 years though, it's become a quaint and rather expensive village with these homes beautifully restored back to single family dwellings.
What price should we pay for progress? Should laws be in place that would help more to preserve the fading architecture of old? Personally, I feel there should be much more incentive to revive old buildings to new use. Too often you will see a new building go up right next to an old, unused one. That seems ludicrous to me.
Some towns in NJ are allowing residential properties to be sold, the large old homes torn down and replaced with two or more on the same lot.
What are we truly gaining and what are we really losing? Are we becoming a nation of McMansions and hard-hearts with no feeling for our past?