SAVORING PLACE: PROTECTING CHICAGO’S SENSE OF PLACE BY PRESERVING ITS LEGACY RESTAURANTS
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2018-06
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MA in Historic Preservation
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Abstract
Humanist geographer Edward G. Relph in Place and Placelessness
conceptualized a vision of place using a phenomenological approach based upon how
humans experience place. Relph’s three main place components include Setting, Activity
and Meaning, and considering resources in this manner can reframe preservation thought.
Viewing place through Relph’s lens makes for a more holistic vision, that can shape what
and how we preserve. A Relphian framework also provides a useful practice theory for
preservationists to expand our notion of who performs preservation and how we evaluate
sense of place.
Small businesses are neighborhood anchors, and historic restaurants play a
particularly social and experiential role. Tangible and intangible cultural heritage must be
evaluated holistically when focusing preservation actions upon businesses such as
historic restaurants. Legacy restaurants are place makers and visible markers of the layers
of history within a place. They convey social history and foodways and act as expressions
of the intangible cultural heritage that lends character to place.
Change is a part of place; cuisine, the history of a place, and historic businesses
do not remain static. Just as legacy business owners have had to be agile and adaptable
to remain relevant and successful, historic preservation may work most effectively
when it too is agile and adaptable in response to change. Using a Relphian view of place
prompts a refocusing on the big picture an expansion of preservation, and a certain
allowance for change. This view suggests that the human experience of place should be
more at the forefront of preservation thought. By expanding how and what we preserve
we will in turn preserve more sense of place.