Historic Scenery

Landscapes tell their own history and can reveal evidence about the past through the interpretation of human interaction with the land. Landscapes can change drastically with time. I have witnessed immense change to the surroundings of a historic site just in my lifetime, due to urban development. The Dionne Quintuplet museum was moved from its original site in Callander Ontario and placed in the City of North Bay. Though not in its original location, visitors could still imagine this as a country home because of the green space and forest surrounding it. Then about 5 years ago a road was built behind the museum and a Home Depot, 5 storey hotel and parking lot completely destroyed the setting. Now visitors are not able to picture how the historic site would have looked amid all the urban development. The Dionne’s would have had a large property with a farm and their neighbours would have been far down the road. With a hotel parking lot encroaching almost on their front door it is difficult to picture the country lifestyle of this family.

New York City has the best examples of seemingly misplaced historic buildings. Trinity Church was once the tallest structure in New York and now this gothic church is completely dwarfed by modern skyscrapers. The juxtaposition is quite poetic. When I first saw this site it triggered my imagination as to how this area would have looked in 1846 when the church was first built.

I believe it is important to have context in order to better understand historic sites and positioning and landscape is an important part of this context. As public historians we must attempt to maintain historic scenery in some way if possible. If this is not possible some information should be provided to visitors about the change that has occurred to the landscape over time. Glassburg in his article "interpreting landscapes" outlines ways that historic sites can maintain their historic surroundings. Historic sites can simply purchase the land surrounding their site. One such example is George Washington's home at Mount Vernon. This task "required curtailing modern development not only on what had been Washington's property, but also on the lands across the Potomac River visible from the site". pg 30 If this kind of money is not in the budget there are other ways to accomplish this through the use of planning tools. One can designate the site a local historic district or place a conservation easement on the area. In rural areas it may be possible to zone the area for agricultural use thus eliminating commercial or residential use.

The park movement of the 1800's speaks to the desire to maintain these natural settings and even more interestingly, the desire to shape even these settings to fit human needs and ideals. Central park designed by Fredrick Olmstead for example, is a beautiful green space but it is not natural in any sense. The park is highly maintained and evidence of human intervention is everywhere with the presence of paths, fountains, cultivated plants, trees and flowers and of course the only animals aside from squires and birds are contains in the zoo. The National Parks though somewhat more natural can still be criticised for catering to human clients. Yellowstone National park for instance is filled with wildlife except for wolves. These sites are examples of the "constructed wilderness" concept, raised in Rebecca Conrad's article “Spading Common Ground".

Conrad argues that the main obsticle to landscape preservation is resource experts imposed differentiation between "natural" and "built". It is easy to recognize the significance of a historic building although it is more difficult to see the importance of historic scenery or historic spaces such as battle sites or simply the historic significance of uncultivated land. We are alienating ourselves from the past if we do not recognize the importance of the historic landscape.


Based on Readings:

-Conard, Rebecca. “Spading Common Ground.” Public History and the Environment. Ed. Martin V.
Melosi and Philip V. Scarpino. Florida: Krieger, 2004, 3-22.

-Glassberg, David. “Interpreting Landscapes.” Public History and the Environment. Ed. Martin V. Melosi
and Philip V. Scarpino. Florida: Krieger, 2004, 23-36.