Historic Preservation and the Imagined West - Essay Example

What had been original downtown areas went into decline as growing populations demanded more space, modern buildings, as well as roads and highways that take them there. Chasing the In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a renewed interest in urban renewal. According to Morley, three cities that she examined determined that what was old could be revitalized and made useful and profitable. Much of the trend towards this renewal (translation: rewriting) of history was started by Dana Crawford in the mid 1960s, before whose time urban renewal meant erasing the past and rebuilding a future vision.

These efforts resulted in many historic structures being torn down and destroyed. Unfortunately, although Crawford and her group did save some historic buildings, much of the revitalization she accomplished was of Denver’s sports mania. If General William H. Larimer, an early settler of the area and for whom the street is named were to return, the only way he would recognize what today’s preservationists call Larimer Street would be if he was a Broncos fan. Soon after the Larimer Street project started showing signs of success, Crawford took her preservation carpetbag to other areas of the city, most notably the southern downtown area.

As the profit news spread, other areas such as Albuquerque and Seattle took note. As with Denver, Albuquerque and Seattle also saved a few historic buildings in their utopian visions, but for all their efforts to save history and work with what is, Morley says that they failed to make authentic places (Morley 16). Albuquerque, for example, saved several old residences, churches, and commercial structures in the Old Town. Seattle’s Pioneer Square was the old central part of the city, but a trip through the Pike Place market, where hundreds of vendors loudly hawk their wares is as Morley describes it, “an honest place in a phony