Boston's Changeful Times : Origins of Preservation and Planning in America

by Holleran, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780801866449
• ISBN10: 0801866448
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-03-01
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

In the mid-nineteenth century, American cities underwent intense physical change at a pace seldom seen before or since. In Boston, reform-minded citizens tallied the costs of unrestrained change and searched for ways to control growth and create a sense of stability in their city. Their preservationist efforts helped to pioneer new approaches to planning and real estate development that eventually spread from Boston and other key cities to the rest of the nation. Boston's "Changeful Times" chronicles the relationship between historic preservation, planning, and the desire for permanence in Boston during the years from 1860 to 1930. Michael Holleran concludes that the tools invented for stopping change proved even more powerful for shaping change. New York City drew on Boston's experience to create the first comprehensive zoning ordinance which, by the end of the 1920s, had fundamentally altered the city-building process. As preservationists, environmentalists, and planners today discover common ground, says Holleran, they are in effect rediscovering the shared origins of their separate movements. This engaging history of preservation, real estate development, city planning, and Boston's urban development will appeal to readers curious to learn more about how and why America's cities came to look the way they do.

Author Biography

Michael Holleran is an associate professor of planning and design at the University of Colorado's College of Architecture and Planning.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	3	(12)
PART I: CHANGE
The Culture of Change	15	(24)
``Changeful Times''	15	(10)
Change Is Good	25	(6)
Change Is Inevitable	31	(8)
Problems with Change	39	(26)
Unfamiliar Society	39	(4)
Disappearing Landmarks and the Unfamiliar City	43	(7)
The Threatened Domestic Environment	50	(4)
Waste, Missed Opportunities, and the Need for Planning	54	(11)
PART II: PERMANENCE
Selling Permanence	65	(19)
Property and Permanence	67	(6)
Equitable Easements	73	(6)
``A Permanent Residential Restricted Neighborhood''	79	(5)
Preservation	84	(26)
The Place of Old Buildings	85	(9)
Historic Monuments	94	(16)
Parks and the Permanent Landscape	110	(25)
The Parks Movement	110	(5)
Boston Common	115	(8)
Burial Grounds	123	(6)
Wilderness and Scenic Preservation	129	(6)
From Monuments to Landmarks	135	(30)
The Bulfinch Front	135	(15)
Brimstone Corner	150	(11)
A City Worthy of Permanence	161	(4)
The Sacred Sky Line	165	(32)
The Police Power	166	(2)
Haddon Hall	168	(5)
Westminster Chambers	173	(9)
Beacon Hill	182	(15)
PART III: CONTROL
The Limits of Permanence	197	(18)
Managing the Permanent Landscape	197	(4)
Too Much Permanence?	201	(9)
Control	210	(5)
Institutionalized Preservation	215	(30)
The Paul Revere House	216	(2)
The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities	218	(8)
Theory	226	(10)
Practice	236	(2)
Preservation as Public Policy	238	(7)
Public Control	245	(24)
``Fixing a Constitutional Limit''	245	(8)
Revisions	253	(4)
The Zone System	257	(5)
Historic Districts	262	(7)
Conclusion	269	(8)
Notes	277	(52)
Index	329