Red Bus Hides Again!
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CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CRM VOLUME 25 NUMBER 5 2002 the Red Bus Hides Again! National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Cultural Resources PUBLISHED BY THE CRM magazine's 25th anniversary year NATIONAL PARK SERVICE VOLUME 25 NUMBER 5 2002 Information for parks, Federal agencies, Contents ISSN 1068-4999 Indian tribes, States, local governments, and the private sector that promotes and maintains high standards for pre The Red Bus Rides Again! serving and managing cultural resources DIRECTOR Fran E Mainella Finding Friends in Pennsylvania 3 Catherine C. Lavoie ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR CULTURAL RESOURCES Katherine H. Stevenson Surveying Boulders at the Sacred Site of the Birdman 7 MANAGING EDITOR E. Blaine Cliver John Robbins EDITOR Sue Waldron Faded Landmark to First Class Hotel — Hotel Monaco a Preservation ASSOCIATE EDITOR Success Story 12 Janice C. McCoy Audrey T. Tepper ADVISORS David Andrews Saving America's Treasures 18 Editor, NPS Rebecca Shiffer Joan Bacharach Curator, NPS Randall J. Biallas Historical Architect, NPS An Appalachian Tale — Restoring Boone's Wilderness Road 20 John A. Burns Architect, NPS Mark Woods Harry A. Butowsky Historian, NPS Prart Cassity Executive Director, On the Road Again — Glacier National Park's Red Buses 23 National Alienee of Preservation Commissions Amy B. Vanderbilt Muriel Crespi Cultural Anthropologist, NPS Mary Cullen Director, Historical Services Branch Parks Canada Preserving Yesterday's View of Tomorrow — The Chicago World's Fair Houses 27 Roger E. Kelly Judith Collins and Al Nash Archeologist, NPS Antoinette J. Lee Historian, NPS The Building Doctor Is In 32 ASSISTANT Mariangela F. Pfister Denise M. Mayo Endnotes 34 This and previous issues of CRM are available online at Cover photo: Glacier National Park's Red Buses have returned to service, once again treating park <http://www.cr.nps.gov/crm>. visitors to a breathtaking ride on the Going-to-the-Sun Road. The buses were completely refur bished through a partnership with the Ford Motor Company — including conversion to a clean- burning fuel system — and retain the historic character that has made them a much-loved icon of the park since 1936. Photo courtesy Ford Motor Company. Design and Imaging McCoy Publishing Services [email protected] CRM is produced under a cooperative agreement between the National Park Service and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers. Views and conclusions in CRM are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or policies of the U.S. Government. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement by the U.S. Government. Send articles and correspondence to the Editor, CRM, National Park Service, 1849 C Street NW (2251), Washington, DC 20240 (U.S. Postal Service) or 1201 Eye Street NW, (2251) Washington, DC 20005 (commercial delivery); telephone (202) 354-2277, facsimile (202) 371-2422; e-mail <[email protected]>. 2 CRM No. 5—2002 Catherine C. Lavoie Finding Friends in Pennsylvania f architecture reflects a society's cul Athenaeum, the exhibit will go to the Arch Street ture, the design of houses of worship Meetinghouse2 in Philadelphia where it will be may offer an insight into its soul. For open to the public from February through May more than 300 years, the Religious 2003. This will coincide with the spring session SocietIy of Friends, known also as Quakers, have of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting when Friends practiced their religion in simple meetinghouses, from the region gather for annual business meet structures that reflect an aesthetic often referred ings. to as "Quaker Plain Style." The documentation project was funded Nestled in communities throughout the through a Congressional appropriation secured Delaware Valley, more than 150 meetinghouses by then-U.S. Representative Peter Kostmeyer of dating from as early as 1695 still stand. A multi- Pennsylvania. Looking broadly at the meeting year project to research and document this houses in southeastern Pennsylvania, HABS com regionally, and in some cases nationally, signifi prehensively examined and selectively recorded a cant building type has produced a substantial large sampling of structures. These written histo body of knowledge adding to the scholarship on ries, measured drawings, and large-format pho Friends meetinghouses. The documentation was tographs constitute a lasting, publicly accessible undertaken by the Historic American Buildings record. Survey (HABS) of the National Park Service and Tangible History is on public exhibition at The Athenaeum of The Friends Meetinghouses of the Delaware Figure 1: Upper Providence Philadelphia through the end of 2002. Valley are important historic resources — tangi Meetinghouse The exhibition, "Silent Witness: Quaker ble reminders of the contributions of Friends to in Oaks, PA, is a Meetinghouses in the Delaware Valley, 1695 to the history of the region, starting with the found good example of an intact, the Present," is sponsored by Philadelphia Yearly ing of the Pennsylvania colony by a Quaker, 1 early 19th-cen Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, William Penn, on the principle of religious toler tury Friends HABS, the Quaker Information Center, and The ation for all. Penn's "Charter of Privileges" offered meetinghouse. Jack E. Philadelphia Athenaeum to raise awareness of the colonists guarantees of civic, as well religious, Boucher, NPS richness of the architectural heritage of the freedom. This document later became the basis photographer. Friends in the Delaware Valley. From The for America's Bill of Rights. Friends are also responsible for myriad landmark institutions of social reform in Philadelphia advocating humane treatment for the insane, the imprisoned, and the unempowered, including Native Americans, slaves, and the poor. Included among the meetinghouses are many well-preserved colonial-era examples, which provide important venues for studying the area's early vernacular architecture (see Figure 1). Taken as a group, the meetinghouses survive as physical manifestations of the changing expres sions of Quaker faith and practice. The number of structures and the changes they represent over more that 300 years of association with Philadelphia Yearly Meeting present an unparal leled opportunity to document the evolution of an important American building type. CRM No. 5—2002 3 Figure 2: Penn's Pennsylvania colony Buckingham became a safe haven for those Meetinghouse erected in 1768 persecuted for their religious in Lahaska, PA, beliefs and home to a unique was the first of variety of religious groups. The its type to be built in the most influential of these were North American members of the Society of colonies. It Friends, the Quakers. became a pro totype for the From the founding of the development of Society in England in 1652 the American until the passage of the 1689 Friends meet inghouse. Jack Act of Toleration, Friends were E. Boucher, unable to meet openly and with NPS photogra out fear of reprisal. The follow pher. ers of George Fox, founder of the Quaker movement, were forced to meet in houses, barns, and other build struction dates, accounts of prior meetinghouses ings adapted for use as meeting places. Prior to on the site, and monthly/quarterly meeting asso the 1690s, only rarely did they attempt to build a ciations. The information was compiled and structure for the explicit purpose of holding examined both chronologically and by region to Quaker worship. In search of religious freedom, reveal specific types, periods, and patterns of Friends began immigrating to Pennsylvania in meetinghouse development. Representative meet 1681. In this region, religious toleration permit inghouse forms were then selected for recording ted them the freedom to pursue their beliefs and based upon their architectural integrity and abil to develop buildings forms conducive to their ity to exemplify a particular stage in the evolution silent worship and separate men's and women's of Friends' meetinghouse design over more than business meetings. 300 years. American Meetinghouse Design In the summer of 1997, a field team of Early Quaker settlers adhered to a pattern architectural technicians working under the for meetings established in England that also direction of HABS architects, the survey histori informed the plan of their meetinghouses. ans, and the HABS photographer produced mea However, given the liberty to experiment with sured drawings, written histories, and large for building design as well as religious practice, the mat photographs of six meetinghouses in colonial Friends eventually deviated from English Pennsylvania, those in the towns of Merion (circa patterns to create their own building forms. In so 1695-1714), Radnor (1718), Buckingham doing, Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (1768), Chichester (1769), Cain (1726, rebuilt developed a uniquely American meetinghouse 1782), and West Grove (1903). The measured that set the standard nationwide for nearly a cen drawings conveyed characteristic features of each tury (see Figure 2). meetinghouse and included a floor plan(s), front Meetinghouse designs continued to evolve and side elevations, structure (often documented over time to adapt to changing patterns of in a section drawing), and details such as win Quaker faith and practice. With this in mind, dows, doorways, bench-end profiles, facing HABS embarked upon a documentation pro benches, and partitions (see Figure 3). Smaller gram to identify