Historic Preservation In Iowa

Historic Preservation

You can travel to many downtowns in Iowa and you will see empty decrepit old structures, once palaces of capitalism and progress now crumbling piles of masonry and timber. Your own town may have structures such as this and you may think every day you see it that it would be best if it was just torn down, that is why I am here. These buildings should not be torn down for a multitude of reasons, the loss of them is something that not only ruins the beauty of many towns but also is an easy way to miss out on an opportunity to attract businesses. These structures were built to be businesses and homes and I am not proposing that every single structure with even the slightest historical significance be converted into a stuffy museum, I am proposing that these buildings be given a second chance through renovations, restoration, and rehabilitation. An example of what historic preservation can do for a community is evident in the …show more content…
This is how you should go about historic preservation. It is important that you look at these buildings not as money pits but as a piece of history worth preserving for future generations. You see many places in Iowa where historic structure are razed with little regard for their possible use, normally these exist in low-income areas that could not support historic preservation, but this is a misconception, there is no such thing as an unfit area for historic preservation, and at one time many called the painted ladies of San Francisco unfit for preservation and nearly sixteen thousand were tore down until locals stepped in and took ownership for the structures , restored them and painted them bright colors, creating what is now the famous San Francisco Victorians, one of the city’s biggest