Restoring America : historic preservation and the New Deal / Stephanie Gray.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gray, Stephanie (Historian), author.

Series:

Public history in historical perspective

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dock Street Theatre (Charleston, S.C.).

Henry Whitfield State Museum (Conn.).

Charles A. Lindbergh House (Little Falls, Minn.).

Historic preservation--United States--Case studies.

Historic preservation.

New Deal, 1933-1939--Case studies.

New Deal, 1933-1939.

Charles A. Lindbergh State Park (Little Falls, Minn.).

La Villita (San Antonio, Tex.).

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

xiv, 287 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Amherst ; Boston : University of Massachusetts Press, [2025]

Summary:

"During the Great Depression, Americans employed historic preservation as a tool to address the political, economic, and social upheavals of the era. Inspired by the Roosevelt administration's unprecedented support of federal arts projects, US politicians, architects, laborers, artisans, and local boosters skillfully used New Deal funds to restore, mythologize, and politicize the 'historic shrines' in their communities. Restoring America illustrates how and why Americans turned to historic preservation as a strategy for managing both political realities and ambitions. Stephanie Gray presents four thoroughly researched and diverse case studies: a colonial theater in the Deep South, a Puritan minister's home in New England, aviator Charles Lindbergh's modest farmhouse and parklands of the Upper Midwest, and a multi-layered Spanish-German-Mexican arts village in the Central South. Collectively, these examples show how the restoration of old places emerged as a popular form of cultural production, an instrument of economic reconstruction, and a striking expression of political theater during the Depression. Moreover, these New Deal preservation projects make evident that any exercise in physically preserving the past is both conservative and progressive, reactive and proactive. Restoring America contends that the federally funded and locally driven preservation initiatives of the 1930s and 1940s can help inform contemporary public history debates over the politics of commemoration and imagine possibilities for future preservation practice" -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

America's preservation impulse before and during the New Deal

The "compelling romance" of the Old South: the Dock Street Theatre, Charleston, South Carolina

The Puritan past at the Old Stone House: the Henry Whitfield State Museum, Guilford, Connecticut

Cultivating the Minnesota frontier: the Charles A. Lindbergh Boyhood Home and State Park, Little Falls, Minnesota

Maverick's Pan-American vision: La Villita Historic Arts Village, San Antonio, Texas

Conclusion

Appendix A. "Historic shrines" restored by the Works Progress Administration

Appendix B. National Park Service restoration policies, May 19, 1937.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Eden fund bookplate.

ISBN:

1625348975

9781625348975

1625348983

9781625348982

OCLC:

1500409186