What is progress?Some define it as tearing down the old to make way for the new.
Here, on a wall at Selma's Old Depot Museum, are photographs of antebellum and Victorian homes and buildings that have been lost to progress. While fire claimed a few of them, others were lost to the inability to afford the cost of upkeep or the desire to build something modern. Eventually, Selmians realized their losses could have been gains for historic value and tourism. Today, various preservation groups work tirelessly to preserve their rich heritage.
5 comments:
Today's "progress" can have a way of becoming yesterday's mistake. Maybe I'm just nostalgic, but wouldn't it be great to have some of those wonderful old buildings back, in restored condition, instead of whatever replaced them?
It's good to hear about the efforts now being made to preserve the past.
What a great idea to have those photos in a place for the public to see! Smart thinking on someone's part.
You ask, "what is progress". I've asked myself the same thing over and over again, as I've heard business people push for new, against repair and rehabiitation. Sometimes "progress" is just another word for death or destruction, isn't it.
There are lots of old, old buildings in Switzerland and they pour lots and lots (and probably lots more) of money into preserving them. It's much less expensive and less complicated to just pull down old, out-dated (in terms of fire safety, accessibility, and things like that) buildings rather than trying to preserve them, isn't it? Let's hope more people opt to restore, even if it "hurts".
Now that is a great idea. I can do the pictures but we don't have a place to hang them in Selma, NC.
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