Here we are in January. We’ve experienced Januarys before and there’s more to come. But after the last 18 months as our lives were turned upside down, I do hope this January will begin something different. COVID forced us to curtail our lives. Trips to visit the places or people we love were cancelled. Our homes became remote offices. Going to the office was remembered as B.C. – Before COVID. Now the world is slowly opening, and we are rediscovering places around us. I want to reflect on the role that place plays in our lives.
Now is a time of rapid change: instantaneous communication, changing consumer tastes, gentrification and the global pandemic are turning cities upside down. The wisecrack that the only certain things in life are death and taxes is incomplete. I’d add “change.” Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher, said “change is the only constant in life.” More recently, the “modern philosopher” Sheldon Cooper said, “I guess the only thing that actually stays the same is that things are always changing … the inevitability of change might be a universal constant.” He is spot on.
Many have a lovehate relationship with change. But the inevi tably of change doesn’t have to include the really important things like the destruction of community character or identity. Progress doesn’t demand degraded surroundings. Taylor can grow without destroying the places and things people love about living, working or visiting here.
Place is more than just a location. A sense of place is a unique collection of qualities and characteristics – visual, cultural and social – that give a location meaning. Sense of place is what makes one location (your hometown) different from another location (my hometown). Sense of place makes our physical environment valuable & worth caring about.
Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath has a passage that defines why I embraced the study & practice of historic preservation as a career:
“How will we know it’s us without our past? How if you wake up in the night and …know the willow tree’s not there? Can you live without the willow tree? Well, no, you can’t. The willow tree is you.”
Change the word “land” for downtown and “willow tree” for the buildings found there & you can see my perspective.
I first came to Taylor in September 2019. I’d been to Texas, and I knew the land in Central Texas was wide open and flat unlike Georgia’s mountains and hills. But I wasn’t prepared for downtown Taylor. The historic streetscape and the number of historically intact commercial structures amazed me. There were original exterior light fixtures & Victorian fire escapes in plain view. I knew, if the offer was made, I was moving to Texas. I told friends that any similar fixtures around Atlanta would have been scooped up & put in a Buckhead mansion long ago.
Growth is coming to Taylor – Austin was always going to spread east. The Samsung project just put that growth on a faster track. But Taylor is ready for the changes that are coming. We have an updated Comprehensive Plan. along with master plans for downtown and parks. We have road maps to guide us into the future. Should another issue come up, we will rise to meet it.
Taylor is fortunate. Many cities are suffering the social & economic consequences of losing a sense of place. Placekeeping can help cities avoid or mitigate such losses.
Placekeeping is the active care &maintenance of a place and its cultural and social fabric. It’s not just preserving buildings, but also keeping the social memories associated with a place alive while supporting the ability of locals to maintain their way of life. Places across the nation have been homogenized out of existence. If you were suddenly dropped outside of most American cities, you wouldn’t have the slightest idea where you were because it all looks the same. But Main Street Cities are the exceptions to the same look-different location syndrome.
The National Main Street program is based on economic development through historic preservation. Main Street is both a process and a philosophy. The process seeks to engage as many citizens as possible in planning for their downtown’s future, while preserving what matters most. The philosophy recognizes that special places, characteristics and customs have value. Placekeeping is about identifying and preserving the heart and soul of a place. Taylor’s historic buildings and unique neighborhoods are an economic resource. The historic buildings and streetscape found in here are worth preserving not just because they are beautiful and valuable, but because they are emblematic of what makes Taylor special.
