I'm thinking "parking lot"

So, the Mark Twain house couldn't make it.

Let's do what we do with all of our historic buildings in Hartford. Knock it down, and pour blacktop. We need more surface parking in case people ever decide to come to Hartford.

The only problem with tearing it down is that every promotional brochure in the state, which features "things to do in Hartford" would have to be torn up and reprinted. Twain's house is the most visible sign that Hartford has a culture to protect, and its failure is a true indication of how much respect culture really gets here.

And if we don't need another parking lot (and who could imagine ever having enough parking lots), then we can subdivide it, put up cubicles and turn it into a social services agency, a halfway house, or a needle exchange.

But what will visitors to Hartford do, if they can't be directed to Twain's lovely manse on Farmington Avenue. Where will Springsteen go the next time the E Street Band rolls into town, the legislative office building? How will Steven King spend a sunny afternoon in the Capitol city, trying to find where Wallace Stevens lived? Where will Meryl Streep stop on her way between Litchfield and Boston, the Hartford Public library for a quick bathroom tryst?

In their desperation, I would hope (there's that damned subjunctive again), that the people running Twain place have approached every major personality who has ever graced Twain's doorstep for a contribution. I would guess that they have pleaded with each corporation that has ever snapped a photo of the graceful brick and lattice work for use on a "Welcome To Hartford" booklet for transfers and new hires, to cough up a few bucks. I would expect that they would have run a public campaign to collect pennies for the house where Huck was born.

Somehow the word "mismanagement" creeps into my thoughts. How is it that the lovely Harriet Beecher Stowe home is ripe with endowment? Is it that directors have been hired who exhibit Twain's vaunted lack of a business sense? Will Twain's ghost have to walk the floors of Uncle Tom's Cabin?

There must be someone with a little imagination who can sell the idea that we ought not shutter a building where one of America's great minds spent hours avoiding the work that would make him famous.

How 'bout we smash a few antiques for the sake of progress

(I stand corrected, below)


Pardon me for being pissy, but I'm one of those "cranky" preservationists who insisted that the house at 9 Liberty Street be saved. And it was, as it was moved early Sunday morning to a new site on Rapallo Avenue.

Thank god for Izzi Greenberg, of NEAT (North End Action Team) who originally was skeptical of the house move, but now recognizes the beauty of the building, and the integrity it will bring to the North End as housing is transformed there.

Unfortunately, the house move gave Sloan Brewster, of the Middletown Press, the opportunity to get the story wrong again, mostly by quoting people on only one side of the story (every story has two sides, Sloan).

Let me make some things clear about me, and about most preservationists:

- Every old building is not sacred, and not worth saving.
- Old buildings, are not more important than the lives and well-being of residents.
- Progress is not bad.
- All new development is not bad.

As for this particular story, here are some facts that are lacerated in the Middletown Press tale:
- That Peter Harding "donated" the house. Technically, yes, but the town "deeded" the house to Peter Harding with the condition that it would be moved. I can't recall clearly, but I believe the town took the house through eminent domain, and "deeded" it, at no or nominal cost, to the developer. His "cost" for the property was to help pay to move it.
- Mayor Giuliano says we can't make up for mistakes made in the 60's and 70's when a wave of redevelopment left parking lots where beautiful historic buildings once stood. No, Mayor, but we can avoid making the same mistakes again. I grew up in a once beautiful town called New Britain, you don't have to tell me about the ravages of redevelopment.
- "Some people have said it is not a remarkable example of an historic house..." Some? Who? Just plain old lazy journalism not to have that answer.
- "...others protested and so Harding offered it to the cause." Others? Again, who? Oh, me. That's right, I protested, and so did many other residents with names. Who might have known those names? The mayor, the town planner, the developer, the NEAT representatives. More lazy journalism Sloan.
- The house had lost its "historic relevance." Well, it was on the National Historic Register of Historic Structures, is that relevant enough? May I remind you that the Mark Twain House was a rooming house before it was rescued by pesky preservationists. (I stand corrected. The Mark Twain House was an upscale apartment building before it was renovated as a monument to one of America's great writers. Thanks to Susan Forbes Hansen for setting me straight) In 1915, the Old State House in Hartford was abandoned. In 1921, a group of pesky preservationists started a restoration drive. In 1961, it was declared a National Historic Landmark. Sure, 9 Liberty was no Old State House, but it was, and is, significant to Middletown's history. Ironically, as a result of the move, it lost its place on the National Register. There are buildings all over town that don't look like much because they're covered with ramshackle additions, asbestos and aluminum siding, and cheap porches, but that's not an excuse to knock them down.
- The story quotes the mayor and "others" (who?), who claim that it would be more economically sound to have demolished the old building, and built anew. I don't think that was ever proven to anyone's satisfaction, and several meetings were held to discuss the issues. Maybe the mayor knows something we don't. Maybe he and the "others" are simply wrong. But you wouldn't be able to determine that unless you asked someone on the other side of the issue....Sloan?

As many of the people quoted in the article agree, this is a needed, and positive step forward toward revitalization in Middletown's North End. There are unasked questions about the revitalization. Has the redevelopment East of Main, simply relocated the poverty and some of the attendant problems into other North End neighborhoods West of Main? Is the grand experiment of mixed-income housing at Wharfside Commons working? Is another surface parking lot, adjacent to the sidewalk on Main Street, a good thing? And is a driveway, across that sidewalk, leading to a busy grocery store, safe?

One final note. I've been in several banks, lawyers offices, stores, and restaurants on Main Street where I see a familiar photograph. It's of the beautiful old town hall. Demolished to make way for a surface parking lot. We should use that old photo as a reminder to keep the wrecking ball at bay until we're sure we want to sacrifice our past for the sake of our future.