Page images
PDF
EPUB

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The writer wishes to acknowledge the assistance provided him during the preparation of this manual. The following people gave freely of their time during the interview portion of the study, and thanks are hereby given: Mrs. Nicholas H. Holmes, Mobile Historic Development Commission, and C. W. Coleman of the Alabama State Highway Department; Mrs. George E. Downing, Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission, and Wilfred Gates, Rhode Island Department of Transportation; Mrs. Henry S. Edmunds, Historic Charleston Foundation; Mr. Wayne Collier, Vieux Carre Commission, New Orleans; Calder Loth, Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission, and R. L. Hundley, Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Highways; Stuart Peckham, Museum of New Mexico, and A. W. Gonzales and Barry Sanderson, New Mexico State Highway Department; Frank Gilbert of the New York Landmarks Commission; and Dr. William J. Murtagh, Keeper of the National Register, National Park Service, and George

Karas, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Russell V. Keune and Peter Smith of the staff of the National Trust for Historic Preservation provided a welcomed service in editing and suggesting improvements to the original manuscript.

The manual has also been reviewed by the Federal Highway Administration's Office of Environmental Policy, by the staff of the National Register of Historic Places and by the staff of the Advisory Council on Historic Places. Suggestions made by each of them have been incorporated in the final manuscript along with changes suggested by Ann Webster Smith, Project Manager, and Robert F. Crecco, Production Manager, in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Environment and Urban Systems in the U.S. Department of Transportation.

[graphic]

Rural Preservation-The famous Delaware Water Gap at East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, is a breathtaking panorama and a National Recreation Area. The Appalachian Mountain Pass made it possible for early colonists to breach the mountain barrier by land and water and extend the frontiers of the country. Today, the Gap's historic significance and recreational benefits are protected with the vital transportation corridor-highways, waterways and railroads--harmonizing with the environment.

INTRODUCTION

Modern highways mean progress, vastly increased convenience, safety and economy for millions of motorists... and the movement of great quantities of goods. Road construction moves rapidly ahead to open up the sweeping freeways of the interstate system and to improve the lesser roads as well. Road building spells progress!! It can also spell destruction... destruction of the records of those who lived before us."

The importance of protecting and enhancing the remaining vestiges of our heritage has become increasingly recognized by our society. With the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the role of government in the field of preservation has been clearly established, that of taking the lead in legislation and funding and in the policy of government sponsored activities with regard to historic preservation and the environment. However, despite the mandate for historic preservation included in the 1966 Act which declared, in part:

...(b) that the historical and cultural foundations of the Nation should be preserved as a living part of our community life... in order to give a sense of orientation to the American people;

(c) that, in the face of ever-increasing extensions of urban centers, highways, and residential, commercial and industrial developments, the present historic preservation programs are inadequate...

and the establishment, through provisions of the Act, of an Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the

*Highway Salvage Archeology film, produced by the New Mexico State Highway Department and the Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, 1962.

maintenance of a National Register of "districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects significant in American history, architecture, archeology and culture," and a program of matching grants-in-aid to states for preservation projects, the Federal government's most impressive contributions to the field have been concerned with the setting aside of parklands, wilderness areas and other traditional conservation oriented activities. This past approach to the problem is rapidly changing, however, and there is ample evidence of an increasing awareness of the problems of historic preservation as a major component of the environment. In the field of transportation, this new concern was voiced as early as 1968 by Lowell K. Bridwell, former Federal Highway Administrator in his foreword to "The Freeway and the City":

We must reject the kind of either-or approach which maintains that the Nation's transportation goals are inconsistent or in contention with other personal and community aspirations. The question is not, for example, whether to preserve an historic site or to build a highway. Rather, the question is, "How do we provide needed mobility, and in the same process, contribute to other important social goals-such as the preservation of historic sites."

Section 106 of the Historic Preservation Act of 1966 provides:

The head of any Federal agency having direct or indirect jurisdiction over a proposed Federal or federally assisted undertaking in any State and the head of any Federal department or independent agency having authority to license any undertaking shall, prior to the approval of the expenditure of any Federal funds on the undertaking or prior to the issuance of any license, as the case may be, take into account

the effect of the undertaking on any district, site, building, structure or object that is included in the National Register. The head of any such Federal agency shall afford the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation established under Title II of this Act a reasonable opportunity to comment with regard to such undertaking.

These requirements complement and reinforce the obligations of the Secretary of Transportation under Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act to make a "special effort... to preserve... historic sites" and to refrain from approving any program or project

which requires the use of... any land from an historic site of national, state, or local significance as so determined by... (Federal, state, or local officials having jurisdiction thereof) unless (1) there is no feasible and prudent alternative to the use of such land, and (2) such program includes all possible planning to minimize harm to such... historic sites...

It is clear then, that transportation officials throughout the country must explicitly consider the protection of and the potential for the restoration and rehabilitation of historic sites in the earliest stages of the design and planning of transportation facilities. Considering such historic sites and their future, however, is a highly complex matter, especially since historic preservation is one of the sociological, psychological and aesthetic issues that are almost impossible to quantify. And, it is infeasible if not impossible to allocate dollar losses to such as the demolition or desecration of an historic landmark, or the environmental losses caused by routing a highway through or near an important district or site. While planners, highway engineers and preservationists agree that it is impossible to separate preservation, conservation and environmental issues from other considerations inherent in the highway decision making process, highway planners in the past have sometimes relied heavily on the concept of "road-user costs"— mileage time, safety improvements per vehicle, etc.in determining preferred route locations and design features. To balance this, a way of considering such "non road-user costs" as the economic and sociological loss to a community or an individual through the loss of an historic site, the damage to a vista or the disruption of a neighborhood, must be considered. In order to do this, a climate for, or the ready acceptance of preservation in a given area, must be carefully developed over time.

But the main reason for considering historic preservation objectives in the highway planning process is not economic. Edmund K. Faltermayer, writing in Redoing America, touches on the main concern when he states:

The environment that we shape, shapes us. An ugly one is degrading and encourages vandalism by breeding disrespect for one's physical surroundings.

Environmental conditions created by the construction of a highway or other transportation facility can threaten an historic site to the same degree as its actual physical destruction. Yet such conditions are among the most difficult to identify and interpret. Historic sites cannot be studied in highway planning as isolated structures or small groups of significant buildings. The physical and visual relationship of buildings to each other, the relationship of buildings to the site, the natural character of the landscape, and the potential aesthetic impact of the transportation facility itself must be carefully weighed if the most appropriate set of alternatives is to be selected.

This manual addresses itself to the problem of the identification and ranking of historic and cultural preservation factors in any given study area, and to techniques for using this data in studying the relationship of alternative corridors and design proposals for a highway system to the historic sites. To this end, a recording system has been developed for use by highway planners and preservationists, called the Historic and Cultural Resources Inventory. Basically, as explained in Part One of the manual, the HCRI relies on four primary techniques to catalog and rank a community's historic and cultural resources: 1) a review of previously published materials; 2) field survey work; 3) selected interviews; and 4) an evaluation of current and past trends, including such intangibles as the public acceptance of preservation as a desirable community goal and objective.

The purpose of the Historic and Cultural Resources Inventory is twofold. First, the maps and other materials produced as part of the HCRI will assist in the identification of potential areas of conflict between the goals and objectives of the highway department and preservation. Second, the HCRI should be used to point out opportunity areas, where highway construction activity can be channeled to enhance preservation objectives and com

*Faltermayer Edmund K., Redoing America, Harper and Row, New York, Evanston and London, 1968, page 124.

« PreviousContinue »