Dubin, Elisabeth wrote:
I'm hard-pressed to see what lessons a regular homeowner in UC can learn
from the house-museum problem.
The problems that plague historic house museums are real, but we should
not confuse those issues with the historic districting debate going on
in our neighborhood. House museums need endowments and ticket sales to
pay for staff, maintenance, and improvements. If no one visits a house
museum, it's a valid question to ask, "Should the museum continue to
operate?"
A historic district in a residential neighborhood is a separate animal.
I don't charge admission to visit my house, and I don't have an
endowment. If visitation drops, I'm not forced to cut back my staff. I
can turn my house into a B&B if I feel like it and the zoning board
agrees. I'm not pretending to present a re-enactment of the past, and I
don't need to make sure no one sits on my antique furniture.
Barbara Silberman, in her article, says, "As a society, we need to
establish a greater range of options so that local preservationists can
make smart choices about the buildings they save." I would think this
is more of an endorsement for the historic homeowner tax credit, or for
commercial tax credits or facade easements, than a criticism of Historic
Districting.
I'm sure Al will disagree with my separation of this two issues, so I
look forward to reading the response.
historically
correct
porch spindle....$89 per history buff, $89 per non-buff
admission
to historic
house museum....$15 per history buff, $00 per non-buff
another one of
elisabeth's
patented analogies....priceless
.........
laserbeam�
[aka ray]
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