Urban revitalization is much more prevalent than many people realize, and unless we happened to be a historian or in grad school, some of us may not have noticed how prevalent and encompassing urban revitalization efforts can be or what they can tell us about the past. There might be some exceptions for people who spend very little time in an urban setting. This would include people who live in the country and stay there for most of the time. But even they would have had some contact or information floating around regarding revitalization. They need to get gas somewhere, right? I grew up in Alaska and the only incidents I remember involving the theme of revitalization being discussed or seen in action were in the movies.
Revitalization, especially in cities and towns, is everywhere if you know where to look, and even if you don’t and aren't especially trying to notice it, it will still crop up here and there, perhaps in the town square, in an old building, in a park, an old railway station and even in the movies. While not being the direct point of a movie, revitalization is sometimes the co-star. Concepts such as love, romance, drama or comedy are usually in the spotlight and in effect, the star so to speak. In the movie, ‘The Majestic,’ (2001) starring Jim Carrey, a subplot of the movie involves restoring a dilapidated movie theater to its former glory. Revitalization is everywhere in many forms. Another film, an animation that is partly about revitalization, partly about nostalgia and partly about preserving the past is the Pixar animation film, Cars (2006). In the animation, the main character is at first a self-centered jerk. He gradually becomes a nice guy, but a significant part of plot involves nostalgia of Route 66 and the revitalization of the town of radiator springs as well as a message about preserving the past.
Why is revitalization important? The many projects that can involve revitalization whether it is a building, monument, community space like a park or waterfront or a thoroughfare is testament to the past and to history, the memory of things said and done. Long after the owners of whatever it is are gone and can no longer reveal secrets of a bygone era, the items in question can reveal things about the previous owners and history that may surprise us. I live in South Korea and not long ago, I bought an antique...a gramophone. I enjoy collecting antiques though I prefer to collect small antiques such as coins. The gramophone came with several records that were the fragile kind and though the horn was fake as well as the label on the side (his master’s voice, the Victor talking machine dog), the rest of it was genuine. I found many gramophones online but none of them looked exactly like mine did. Inside the gramophone was something unusual. After some difficulty I was able to find out what. It was a little cardboard box that had been a Christmas gift at some point. The gramophone had been made in Switzerland around 1921. How had it ended up in South Korea? The little box had Christmas wrapping paper on it, but interestingly, on the wrapping paper was a swastika. Was this gramophone was owned by Nazis? The little box had likely been locked inside the gramophone for 80 years! I would like to have it restored at some point, if possible.
A gramophone is hardly in the same category as a building, thoroughfare, train, waterfront, park or community space. In the effort of revitalization, public historians can, however, work to coax secrets from a gramophone and a community space and in a sense, give a voice to those items and places whose owners and creators have passed on. A difficulty with restoring the past, or revitalizing, is that the public historian can get embroiled in local contentions with, perhaps, the public on one side and people with money and influence who sometimes have different ideas than the public or public historians. Diplomacy and tack would be vital skills. Also, politics and financial considerations may not always mesh with historical integrity and in sticking to principles there may be times where an impasse is the inevitable result if history is left unmolested. Easier said than done perhaps and yet squashed principles will hurt a community more in the long run. Once principles are lost, they are nothing more than paper tigers.
Sources:
Devine, Michael J. “The Education of a Public Historian: A Case Study with Reflections on Professional Wrestling.” The Public Historian 22, no. 4 (2000): 11–18. https://doi.org/10.2307/3379243.
Bibliography , Hurley, Andrew. 2006. "Narrating the Urban Waterfront: The Role of Public History in Community Revitalization." The Public Historian 28 (4) (Fall): 19-50. https://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2Fnarrating-urban-waterfront-role-public-history%2Fdocview%2F222800877%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D3783.
Kyvig, David E, Nearby History, Exploring the past around you, AltaMirra Press (2000) (https://archive.org/details/nearbyhistoryexp0000kyvi_b4g4/page/18/mode/2up?view=theater
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