ARCH 440 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Ann Pamela Cunningham
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Published on 11 Nov 2017
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KEEPING TIME - CHAPTER 2
THE PRESERVATION MOVEMENT AND THE PRIVATE CITIZEN BEFORE WORLD WAR 2
▪ Concern for the past around 1780’s
▪ Mostly interested in genealogy and archival materials
o Growing interest in who we were, where we had been, and what we had achieved
▪ Restoration activity in America did not take place until the early 19th century
▪ William Strickland
o Designed current state house tower in the Georgian style
o First known instance in the US of an architect designing with an outdated style
o First restorationist in the country
▪ Mount Vernon
o Ann Pamela Cunningham
o Vision and tactics were to color American preservation for generations
o Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union
o Still own Mount Vernon although there have been many offers to relieve them of
the trust
o Why do the ladies insist on keeping Mount Vernon even so long after the original
group saved the site? The ladies in it now are not the original women who saved
it, so why so much dedication to keeping it? They will always be known as the
group that saved the site, even if they hand it over to the government.
▪ Aesthetics became a consideration for preservation
o Americans had trouble looking at architecture as part of their heritage and had a
tendency to emphasize practicality and evaluate them in utilitarian terms.
o Americans began becoming interest in beauty and voiced concerns about lack of
open spaces
▪ National Trust for Historic Preservation was founded
▪ W.A.R. Goodwin
o Vision to restore an entire eighteenth-century town (Williamsburg)
o Total environment to be resuscitated from the past
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