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Why Preservation Matters
Why preserve old buildings and neighborhoods?
It's a question with several answers.
To begin with, we preserve them simply because they're good to
look at. Older buildings are a feast for the unhurried eye, a welcome diversion
from the glass - and - steel banality that casts a pall over too many
communities. Author Judith Waldhorn has called them, "a gift to the
street" - a gift of beauty, texture, variety and detail that our
communities need badly.
Besides that, they work. Countless reuse projects have shown
that old buildings can function in ways their original builders never dreamed
of. In St. Louis, for example, a grand old railroad station now houses a hotel
and a shopping mall, an award-winning transformation that has changed a shabby
white elephant into a bustling marketplace that is a major generator of tax
revenues. In Columbus, Georgia, a former iron mill has been turned into a
convention center. An old high school in Seattle is now highly desirable
condominiums, and in Louisville, Kentucky, what was once the county jail is now
an office building.
Preserved buildings and neighborhoods attract tourists. Travel
expert Arthur Frommer says, "Tourism simply doesn't go to a city that has
lost its soul." What visitors want is the sense of being Someplace, not
just Anyplace. They aren't interested in visiting communities that have
transformed themselves into a sad hodgepodge of cookie-cutter housing tracts,
cluttered commercial strips and bleak downtowns -but they flock to places like
Charleston and San Antonio that have preserved their historic character ... and
saved their soul.
A final -and perhaps the most important -reason for saving old
buildings is illustrated in a statement by John Ruskin: "Architecture is to
be regarded by us with the most serious thought. We may live without her and
worship without her, but we cannot remember without her." We save old
buildings because we need to preserve the marks left on our national landscape
by the many people who have shaped it. We need our collective memory.
Preservation strengthens a partnership that makes for orderly
growth and change in our communities: the perpetual partnership among the past,
the present and the future. This dynamic partnership encourages each generation
to utilize the best of contemporary thought and technology without rejecting the
history, culture, traditions and values on which our lives and our futures are
built. When it's allowed to work as it's supposed to, this partnership shapes
the sense of continuity that art historian Sigfried Giedion says is "part
of the very backbone of human dignity."
Historical and Cultural Significance
- Courthouses were among the first permanent structures in
many Texas counties. They were often the grandest building in town, and many
Texas communities literally grew up in their shadows.
- Courthouses have been the visual, and often the
emotional, center of communities for decades. These structures are
closely tied to important and historical community events. Marriages,
trials, deaths, elections, markets, festivals, meetings, community
celebrations, campaign rallies and other such events have historically
taken place on the courthouse square.
- Many Texas courthouses offer superior examples of
architectural trends and styles. They also provide examples of
technological advances in building methods and showcase the work
of designers and builders who had statewide and sometimes national
reputations. Architectural styles reflected in historic courthouse design include
Gothic Revival, Art Deco, Neoclassical, Renaissance Revival,
Romanesque Revival and Second Empire. A total of 86 Texas courthouses
have been listed in the National Register of Historic Places, 78 are
Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks and 62 are State Archeological
Concho County Courthouse Landmarks. Many more courthouses are eligible
for these historical designations.
Economics of Fiscal Responsibility
- Preservation and rehabilitation are fiscally
responsible approaches to facilities management. Historic courthouses
were built at great expense to Texas counties. Many issued bonds or
levied taxes to pay for construction. Building materials and
construction methods used on historic courthouses would be extremely
costly today, which would make construction of a comparable structure
financially infeasible.
- The original designs of historic courthouses have
economic advantages, in addition to their aesthetic value and
historical significance. Most were designed to be cost-effective with
thick masonry walls to conserve heat, large open spaces to allow good
air circulation and tall windows and sky lights to let in plenty of
natural light.
- Every business day, courthouses located in downtown
business districts draw hundreds of employees, visitors, citizens,
lawyers and jurors, all of whom are potential customers for downtown
merchants.
- Historic courthouses are potentially eligible for
rehabilitation grants from public and private foundations, and from
the Texas Preservation Trust Fund, which is administered by the Texas
Historical Commission.
- Of recent years, Texas courthouses have received
state and federal rehabilitation grants, including Federal Highway
Administration ISTEA grants, totaling almost $30 million.
- State law allows money from local hotel/motel taxes
to be used for tourism- related historic preservation projects.
Because historic courthouses are statewide tourist attractions,
courthouse restoration projects should be able to tap into that local
funding resource. Construction of new courthouses would not benefit
from hotel/motel tax receipts.
- Historic Texas courthouses have become popular
locations for major films, television movies and commercials.
Courthouses featured in recent movies include the Maverick County
courthouse in Lone Star, the Fayette County Courthouse in Michael,
the Caldwell County Courthouse in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, the
Grimes County Courthouse in Hope, the Harris County Courthouse
in Pointman and the Wharton County Courthouse in Powder. These
production projects instill community pride and help boost local economies.
- Rehabilitation is a labor-intensive process rather
than a material or energy-based process. Local laborers hired for rehabilitation
projects will spend their income in the local community. Material purchases
for new construction are likely to be purchased outside the
county, causing minimal impact on the local economy.
- When an existing building is demolished, the
community loses the value of materials, energy resources and
labor used to design, build and maintain the structure.
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Concho County
Courthouse
Leon County
Courthouse
Medina County
Courthouse
Newton County
Courthouse
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The Economic
Impact of Tourism
- Heritage Tourism has become one of the
fastest-growing segments of the travel industry. Promoting a restored
historic courthouses as heritage tourism destinations could impact
local economies statewide.
- Texas ranks second as a pleasure travel destination
for U.S. residents, and the State is a leading destination for
international travelers. Tourism is the third largest
revenue-generating industry in Texas. Domestic and international
travelers generated almost $28 billion in revenue for Texas in 1996.
In 1995, direct travel and tourism generated more than $4.2 billion in
tax revenue for federal, State and local governments. Travel spending
supported almost 450,000 Texas jobs in 1995. Those employees earned
nearly $8.5 billion in wage and salary income.
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- Texas ranks fourth in the U.S. in the number of
cultural and historical travelers. Of travelers in Texas who
participated in cultural activities in 1996, 48 percent said they
visited a historic site, according to the Texas Department
of Economic Development (TOED). Nationwide, more than 65 million
Americans said they had visited a historic site or museum or had attended
a music concert, arts performance or other cultural event in 1996.
Cultural and heritage tourists generally spend more per day while
traveling than purely leisure travelers, according to a study
sponsored by TDED. Cultural and historical tourists spent an
average of $89.20 per day, compared with the $78.90 per-day
average spent by all leisure travelers. Heritage travelers take longer
trips and spend more per trip than average U.S. travelers.
Cultural and heritage travelers spent an average of
$6l5 per trip, compared with $425 spent by all U.S. travelers, and
heritage travelers spent an average of 4.7 nights away,
compared with 3.3 nights for all U.S. travelers, according to a
recent study by the Travel Industry Association of America.
Environmental Responsibility
- Preservation protects and extends the environmental
investment a community has already made in an existing
building. Preservation eliminates the excessive waste of construction
materials and resources. Rehabilitation reduces the cost of demolition
and the impact on landfill space. Less energy and materials
are needed for rehabilitation than for new construction, and this
reduces the need for new construction materials whose production
is costly to the environment.
- Demolition and new construction may At threaten the
large, older trees that often dominate public squares that surround
county courthouses.
- New construction can create problems. The
overall quality of new buildings is generally less than the
construction quality of historic courthouses, which means
newer structures have a much shorter life span and could
potentially require more maintenance and upkeep.
Intangibles
- Courthouses are legacies bestowed by previous
generations. Current courthouse occupants are brief parts of the
building's history.
- Preservation of a historic county courthouse
demonstrates long-term vision on the part of the community and
its elected officials. Such a project represents a commitment to the
past and the future.
- Historic courthouses are traditionally the grandest
and most prominent buildings in the county. Due to the high cost of
new construction, annexes and new courthouses are usually more modest
with fewer visual amenities than their historic predecessors.
- The methods, quality and value of courthouse
construction can no longer be duplicated by today's building
practices. The finely carved masonry, ornamental and sometimes exotic
stones, wood flooring and paneling and extensive embellishments
crafted in plaster, wood and stone all convey a message of pride and
purpose that could not be replicated in a modern structure.
- The act of demolition is irreversible. No amount of
community regret will ever bring back a historic courthouse once it
has been demolished.
- Historic courthouses are structures that help give
counties and communities their unique identities. Not every community
has a historic courthouse, and no two historic courthouses are
exactly alike.
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Erath County
Courthouse
Atasocsa County
Courthouse
Grimes County Courthouse
Jefferson County Courthouse
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