Historic Preservation - History

History

In England, antiquarian interests were a familiar gentleman's pursuit since the mid 17th century, developing in tandem with the rise in scientific curiosity. Fellows of the Royal Society were often also Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries.

The first Ancient Monuments Protection Act was adopted in 1882. The UK's Ancient Monuments Act (1913) officially preserved certain decayed and obsolete structures of intrinsic historical and associative interest, just as modernism was lending moral authority to destruction of the built heritage in the name of progress. The UK's National Trust began with the preservation of historic houses and has steadily increased its scope. In the UK's subsequent Town and Country Planning Act 1944, and the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, steps were taken toward historic preservation on an unprecedented scale. Concern about the demolition of historic buildings arose in institutions such as the pressure group The Society for the Preservation of Historic Buildings, which appealed against demolition and neglect on a case by case basis.

In the United States one of the first historic preservation efforts was the Washington's Headquarters State Historic Site, in Newburgh, New York. This property has the distinction of being the first-ever property designated and operated as a historic site by a U.S. state, having been so since 1850.

Another early Historic Preservation undertaking was that of George Washington's Mount Vernon in 1858. Founded in 1889, the Richmond, Virginia-based Preservation Virginia (formerly known as the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) was the United States' first statewide historic preservation group.

The architectural firm of Simons & Lapham (Albert Simons and Samuel Lapham) was influential in creating the first historic preservation ordinance in Charleston, South Carolina in 1930, affording that city a regulatory means by which to prevent the destruction of its historic building stock. In 1925, efforts to preserve the historic buildings of the French Quarter in New Orleans led to the creation of the Vieux Carré Commission and later, to the adoption of a historic preservation ordinance.