Layers: Significance, Heritage and the Complex Historic Place
Loading...
Links to Files
Permanent Link
Collections
Author/Creator
Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2018-06-14
Department
Program
MA in Historic Preservation
Citation of Original Publication
Rights
This work may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.
Abstract
This study uses the Erie Canal Village (ECV), an outdoor heritage museum
located in Rome, New York, as a case study. Intended to become an economic
development tool for the city, it is now privately owned and threatened by neglect,
although several layers of history and heritage are present at the site.
This study also addresses how to approach a complex historic site with
varying levels of significance assigned to each historic layer, in order that it receive
the recognition and protection needed. Like other layered sites, geography was a
factor in the presence of human use of the ECV site for transportation, defense, and
then heritage activities. An analytical framework includes the evaluation of heritage
and heritage tourism as it relates to the site, where history is both present and
presented. Discussion includes the determination of which layer of the site’s history
matters most. Analysis of current methods of evaluating historic and/or culturally
significant places compares current American and Australian systems to determine
which approach is more appropriate for a complicated, layered site and provides a
broader application of protection and recognition. Understanding a layered historic
place like the ECV will assist other historians and preservationists in coping with
similarly complicated sites.
The ECV layer is the only layer of the site that possesses local and state
significance, while all of the other layers present at the site possess national levels of
significance. I conclude that this layer, if protected and properly maintained, will
continue to provide protection to the remaining historical layers present at the site.
The presence of the village buildings, in effect, protects the historic layers at ground
level, as well as the site’s undiscovered archeological resources.