Historic Preservation and the Imagined West

Historic Preservation and the Imagined West

In many of the American cities, historic preservation evolved differently, as have the destinies of the historical neighborhood in these cities. Denver, Seattle and Albuquerque are three such examples where the interests of different groups and the integration of the historical neighborhoods in the life of the city affected their overall development.

In Denver, the historical neighborhood is considered to be the area containing the Larimer Square and Lower Downtown. The respective area marked its transformation from the old warehouse district into a "mixed-use neighborhood" (Morley, 2006). The initial objective for saving and preserving the historical neighborhood in Denver was that of "revitalizing the central business district" (Morley, 2006). With such an objective in mind, there was a mixture of groups that fought to put that in practice and that included the city council and NGOs, as well as part of the business community.

However, the final objective was also that of recognizing and preserving the civic identity that was associated with the Larimer Square, location of the initial birth of the city. The idea of identity was also reflected in the fact that the area around Larimer Square and the Lower Downtown was the only one in the city that could differentiate it from other places in the United States and make it unique. From that perspective, the city needed to preserve its identity. One of the interesting aspects is that the identity could not be that of warehouses and manufacturing units, as the initial area had historically proposed. As such, the historical neighborhood received an "urban remake."

In the case of Seattle, the historic flavor seems to revolve around two main areas of the cities: Pike Place and the original Pioneer Square. The Pioneer Square embodies the original spirit of Seattle and its present appearance should be discussed from a historical perspective, noting its evolution throughout the decades from the initial settlement of people here in the mid 1850s. Initially labeled as the center of the city life and the place around which all activities revolved, the Pioneer Square's fate was tied to the economics of the place. As such, the once prosperous location during the 19th century lost its glitter during the initial decades of the 20th century, including after the Boeing Corporation was founded, turning the fortunes of the city.

It was not until the 1950s that the inhabitants of Seattle began to rediscover their past and their cultural heritage, as they identified it with the Pioneer Square, later renamed Pioneer Place. It was the business men and individuals involved in the economic life that promoted the project to preserve and reinvent the square and the reason for that was also partially economic: beyond identifying with the original settlers, several business associations supported the idea of a historic and cultural downtown in Seattle that would have, in their vision, encouraged investments in this area because of an increased tourist interest.

At the same time, several investors believed that the buildings in this historical and cultural sector of the town could be bought at lower prices, restored and perhaps later exploited at higher prices. On similar objectives of boosting the value of the place as an economic interest, the City Council adopted several ordinances that expanded the area subjected to be declared a cultural heritage and brought in new investments into the Pioneer Place. Overall, one can point to a combination of "city legislation, federal funding and private initiative" (Morley, 2006) that transformed the Pioneer Place into the historic landscape of today.

It was also during this time (late 1960s and early 1970s) that the inhabitants of Seattle began to identify more with the initial spirit of the settlers, who had found the right solution during times of economic hardships, similar to those occurring in that particular period of time. The Pioneer Place transformed itself to embody the spirit of Seattle itself.

One particular characteristic of the Pioneer Place was the fact that the different groups that worked towards recreating the identity of the square also clashed in terms of the heritage that the square should embody. The two directions usually in play were either that of the Skid Row, place of vagabondism and debauchery, or that of the initial entrepreneur and survival spirit of the inhabitants. The result was that the Pioneer Place remains today an eclectic combination of beautiful architecture and bums, along with shopping centers and small neighborhood shops.

The case of Albuquerque was somewhat different than Seattle. First of all, the Old Town, as the old historical part of the city was called, had lived an almost separate existence well into the 20th century, with the community grouped around the local church and generally out of contact with the other parts of the city, notably the New Town. As a consequence, the historical dimension of this part of the city and the cultural heritage remained virtually unchanged and unaffected by the passage of time, to the degree to which, in many cases, the modern developments, such as running water, had not been introduced.

There are two important elements that marked the evolution of Old Town Albuquerque into a historical neighborhood. First, the original Old Town was populated with inhabitants of Spanish and Mexican decent and this was the original background of the population there. As the population of Anglo-Saxon decent began to settle in, generally attracted by the countryside flavor of the neighborhood, it also began to stimulate the idea of the creation of a historical area in this part of the town. As such, they proposed the Old Town as "a quaint vestige of an earlier era rather than a tight-knit ethnic community" (Morley, 2006). The historical neighborhood would thus transform itself.