Why Historic Preservation?

Enright, John

A newspaper article draft about why historic preservation matters, especially in regards to American Samoa. There is no indication in which newspaper the article is/was planned to be published. Excerpt: "The American historian Walter Havighurst once observed: 'The past is not the property of historians; it is a public possession. It belongs to anyone who is aware of it, and it grows by being shared. It sustains the whole society, which always needs the identity that only the past can give.' But the past is not just what is written down in books or passed along as oral tradition. The past can also inhabit space, be captured in historic buildings, and linger in legendary sites and landscapes. At preserved historic sites one can share a space with those who came before, and the past becomes more personal, more real. In American Samoa we are fortunate to still have some of those historic sites - like Government House and the WWII guns above Blunts Point, the Courthouse and the ancient Tatagamatau quarry site above Leone, among others. Through the efforts of the American Samoa Historic Preservation Office these sites and others in Tutuila ma Manu'a have been granted national recognition as Registered Historic Places or National Landmarks." Project funding was provided by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the American Samoa Historic Preservation Office, Executive Offices of the Governor, administered by the Pacific West Regional Office, National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior (grant number 60-09-21857).

Why Historic Preservation?

Collections