University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Theses (Historic Preservation) Graduate Program in Historic Preservation 1992 Unwinding the Past: An Educational Program for the Preservation Planning Process Sarah Payne Korjeff University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses Part of the Historic Preservation and Conservation Commons Korjeff, Sarah Payne, "Unwinding the Past: An Educational Program for the Preservation Planning Process" (1992). Theses (Historic Preservation). 536. https://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses/536 Copyright note: Penn School of Design permits distribution and display of this student work by University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Suggested Citation: Korjeff, Sarah Payne (1992). Unwinding the Past: An Educational Program for the Preservation Planning Process. (Masters Thesis). University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses/536 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Unwinding the Past: An Educational Program for the Preservation Planning Process Disciplines Historic Preservation and Conservation Comments Copyright note: Penn School of Design permits distribution and display of this student work by University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Suggested Citation: Korjeff, Sarah Payne (1992). Unwinding the Past: An Educational Program for the Preservation Planning Process. (Masters Thesis). University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. This thesis or dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/hp_theses/536 uNivERsmy PENNSYL\6\NIA. LIBRARIES UNWINDING THE PAST: AN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM FOR THE PRESERVATION PLANNING PROCESS Sarah Payne Korjeff A THESIS in The Graduate Program in Historic Preservation Presented to the Facuhies of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE 1992 V4/UUi. John D. Milner, Adjunct Associate Professor, Historic Preservation, Advisor ^U4//^ David A. Hollenberg, Lecturer, Historic Preservation, Reader Hd G. De l^ngj^ofessi Graduate Group Chairman FINE ARTS M/^^//Hl/A/ i > UNIVERSI I Of PENNSYLVANIA TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents 2 List of Illustrations 3 I. Introduction 4 II. The Preservation Planning Process: What's Missing 7 III. Demonstrating the Community Need for Education 25 rv. A History of Doylestown, Pennsylvania 41 V. The Educational Program 61 VI. Conclusion: Implementation 87 Bibliography 92 UST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Following Chapter 3: A History of Doylestown, Pennsylvania: figure 1. 1775 Map of Doylestown, Pennsylvania The Fountain House, etching Doylestown area farmlands, etching 1813 Bucks County Courthouse, photograph 1857 Map of Doylestown, Pennsylvania Reading Railway Station, Doylestown, photograph Doylestown Planing Mill, Lumber & Coal Yard, etching Notice of sale of the Pollock Tract, 1898 1886 Map of Doylestown, Pennsylvania The Educational Program: Community history spiral Doylestown community history spiral Following Chapter 4: The Educational Program: figure 12. Agricultural works, photograph figure 13. Workers' housing row, photograph figure 14. Lenape Building, photograph figure 15. Bucks County Trust Company, photograph figure 16. Old bam within modem subdivision, photograph figure 17. Stone embankment in Doylestown cemetery, photograph figure 18. Fountain House, photograph figure 19. Mercer Museum, photograph figure 20. Faded sign on brick building, photograph figure 21. Rear gate at Fonthill, photograph INTRODUCTION Preservation planning faces opposition in many communities because its goals and values are not clearly understood. This thesis addresses the lack of communication between communities and their planners by encouraging increased citizen awareness and participation in the preservation planning field. As more and more communities face development pressures and confront the possibility of instituting preservation planning as a mitigating strategy, the need to convey preservation's potential benefits becomes more important. Educational activities that seek to convey an area's heritage are often developed after planning programs are in place. Optimally, however, they should be instituted prior to establishing preservation planning regulations. Education can enhance the effectiveness of the planning process in its earliest stages by helping residents to understand what historic preservation can offer to existing communities, and by encouraging them to become informed decision-makers and supporters. If the general public could readily recognize the variety of historical resources in their surroundings, and could interpret them as indications of a much larger historic picture, the values of preservation planning would become more apparent. Through the use of a simple educational program, this thesis proposes a means of fostering a self-informed constituency that is aware of the significant historic resources around them. At the core of the program is a concept for representing the process of historical evolution and the integral physical elements of a community, highlighting their interrelationships. After being introduced to the program's basic premise, citizens will be stimulated to determine for themselves what is interpretable in their surroundings. They will then be prepared to weigh the values of preservation against development, and to support that which they beUeve is best for their own community. Chapter 1 THE PRESERVATION PLANNING PROCESS: WHAT'S MISSING Historic Preservation is a broad field dedicated to the restoration, rehabilitation and maintenance of man-made objects and landscapes that reflect past periods of our history. Preservation planning concerns the use of pro-active rather than reactive efforts to protect these historic resources. Though the field of preservation planning is not closely defined, it has in recent years become allied with other forms of land use planning, resulting in efforts to monitor and regulate change in historic areas in ways similar to those used in related land use fields. The goals of preservation planning, in general terms, are to retain data inherent in our cultural resources and to direct change in a way that allows historic sites to continue conveying the history that they represent. The wide scope of this field has led to the creation of a broad range of innovative programs designed to achieve these goals, but an important aspect seems to receive little attention: education. Preservation planning lacks a manner of explaining its broad goals to the public. Since there is no generally accepted definition of preservation planning, and preservation planners employ a wide variety of unfamiliar programs, outsiders cannot be expected to comprehend the field's value. The public needs to become more familiar with preservation planning, its versatility, and how it can respond to their involvement and influence. This thesis aims to establish an educational program that promotes a greater understanding of the built environment and thus, by creating an increased awareness of its value, encourages public participation in preservation planning. The educational program will provide a means for citizens to interpret the historic development of their community through their own investigation of existing structures and landscapes. It will prompt them to identify the primary visible forces of change and to note their manifestation in the community. The program's success will depend on its ability to be clear and informative, and to provide a vehicle that motivates residents to interpret their surroundings, to determine what is imponant to them, and to understand the value of preservation planning. Planners have tried to involve the public in planning decisions for several decades, hoping to make the process more democratic and to gain support for their actions. Recent studies in related fields indicate that public participation is essential to successful planning, and this theory holds true also for preservation planning. Without input from residents who can point out the value of an historic site on a local level, recognized sites will be largely the ones that reflect only our national heritage, thus omitting an important part of our collective history. While hoping to encourage participation in preservation planning, we must confront the fact that not all citizens have identified images of the past in their environment. Before citizens can be informed participants in preservation planning, they must grasp the history that surrounds them, and thus develop the ability to make informed value judgements. Though education has long been considered a form of citizen participation in planning, it usually refers to information dissemination rather than to an interactive educational program. Education that not only disburses information, but also promotes an active process of understanding the environment's historic evolution, can lead to greater support for preservation planning and more valuable input into its processes of development. A. Understanding the Goals and Forms of Preservation Planning: The concept of planning cities survives from at least as early as the 15 th century, when defense was the major concern and a city was designed around its fortifications. 1 In their more current form, city and regional planning are concerned with balancing the myriad existing and future needs of a community's inhabitants against the economic and physical resources available. Comprehensive planning