Sure, I know “you can’t stop progress.” I’ve heard that many times and fear it may be largely true. Question is, where is this march of progress leading? I’m all for progress in medicine, in doing things better (not necessarily faster) and for headway made against the ills of mankind. What I’m not for is senseless demolition and utter disregard for history and beauty that cannot be replaced. I don’t agree that if something does not fit in with the present, it must be destroyed.
I subscribe to a website that features old houses that are for sale. This morning’s listing included a gem of a house in Georgia, built before the Civil War. It looks to be structurally sound. It includes fireplaces, a wrap-around porch, wide-plank pine floors, elegant mantels and six-over-six windows. The builder spared no expense to make it an inviting, gracious home.
The house is older than my grandmother, who was born in 1880. (This, by the way, is my grandmother, Mary Edna Latty’s birthday.) And, it stands in the same state that was her birth state–Georgia. What tales the house could tell! When Sherman’s army marched through Georgia, destroying and burning everything, somehow, the house was spared. I wonder if it was not in Sherman’s path, or how it escaped. For more than a century and a half, it faced up to wind, rain and neglect. But, you know what? It stands in the way of “progress”. Demolition is in the works and if that happens, a piece of history will be destroyed to be replaced by a parking lot or a shopping center, or…who knows what?
I am reminded of a beautiful house in Tahlequah that was torn down to make way for a parking lot. The house was built with a quality and care that was irreplaceable. It was not an eyesore; it was a part of history but it’s no longer there. I don’t know who decided but somebody decided it was old and useless and a parking lot would look much better. What a shame!
Hopefully, the house in Georgia will not suffer the same fate. Maybe someone with a love for the past and the wisdom to appreciate beauty and history will buy it. Maybe it will be spared as a reminder of the dignity and grace and courage of a way of life that is gone forever. I can only hope!
As you may have guessed, I have a great respect for and interest in old houses. Maybe that’s why old houses show up in all my books. Even when Darcy and Flora built their new house in the country, they kept the old home place in town.
You’ll find those old houses here: The Cemetery Club, Grave Shift, Best Left Buried, Grave Heritage, and in the new series, Moonlight Can Be Murder.
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