THE IMPORTANCE & BENEFITS of HISTORICAL PRESERVATION
The Importance and Benefits of Preserving History
On the back roads is where history was made. History is the Oregon Trail, pioneers, Indigenous peoples, the railroads, Route 66. It’s the folks who came out west and formed small towns, fought through the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. We know a lot about the Oregon Trail, but we don’t know what came out of it, what towns, inventions, buildings, and so on. We know of history. Rural history is too often untold, much of it forgotten, because it’s rural America and most people seem to assume nothing happens or happened in rural America. But the communities are where important history was made yet forgotten to most.
It’s important to dwell on the past in certain ways. It is important to understand where we’ve been and what we can become. In some ways, this is a similar philosophy as Walt Disney’s. But unlike Disney, historians know that the past gives us our understanding of how to move forward, so it should be saved and constantly revisited.
Communities across the country have pushed hard to find the funds to preserve their history, propelling them into the future. Mark Twain’s hometown of Hannibal, for example, didn’t always have the downtown tourism Mecca they have now. Around 2007, the city hired a consulting firm to help them understand how they could make their historic downtown a prospering attraction unto itself. Today, the downtown is its own attraction. Mark Twain is an undeniable draw, but the city had to transform their downtown to be able to reach the future it envisioned. They had to work hard, use their strengths, find the answers, work within their limited budget, and most importantly, Hannibal’s residents had to believe that reviving their downtown would benefit everyone, even if business owners lost control of their façades because of city regulations.
And it worked.
Twain draws people in. The town, its heritage, and its festivals keep tourists there longer to spend more money. Without fail, I stop in Downtown Hannibal on my way to and from Marceline to enjoy a drink and when the weather is nice, I sit outside among the historic buildings and enjoy the ambiance. That’s what revitalization does. It has the effect of slowing people down, so the stay longer and spend more money. There’s absolutely no reason for me to stop there on the way to and from Marceline. I stop because I enjoy the antiquated feeling and ambiance of the city.
Even Hannibal had to pinch pennies to make it happen. They didn’t have unlimited funds to do that. Instead, they relied on the community, particularly the downtown business owners to do what was right for the city. They pushed and pushed, just as Marceline is doing today, and made efforts to revitalize their downtown and several other historic buildings. The plan was simple, and it worked: Twain would bring in the tourists, and the history and architect would keep them there, spending more money and extending their stay. In many ways, Twain is simply a footnote in Hannibal’s history now, as Disney is for Marceline.
This is why I enjoy hanging around Marceline, particularly the Marceline Carnegie Library. I see the city as a phoenix, as a city on the verge of its next great Renaissance. This next rebirth is not as a railroad subdivision stop, or a coal town, or the childhood hometown of Walt Disney, but as its own, unique heritage tourism attraction. I see a city that takes us back to a simpler time and when people built things to be both attractive and to last 100 years (like the Masonic Temple, First Christian Church, and Carnegie Library in Marceline). There are several buildings in Marceline alone that are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (full disclosure, I’m working on the nominations of two of those: Uptown Theatre and the Masonic Temple.). There are several in Brookfield, Missouri that might be eligible. The same goes for other rural communities. Your history matters.
Heritage tourism is a booming business. Those who travel to learn about history spend $175 per DAY more than regular tourists. For a place like Marceline, that means that if the buildings currently eligible for the National Register of Historic Places were revitalized and the city advertised for heritage tourists, they could bring in a significant amount of extra money; we’re looking at $20,000 as a conservative estimate.
That’s the power of remembering and preserving the past. It leads to a more prosperous future full of new paths, increased curiosity, and money.