Some Notes from Ervin Beck's Talk

Ervin Beck, Professor Emeritus from Goshen College's English Department, came to talk to the class on Tuesday. I was struck with a number of things from his talk:

1. He has been doing Public History all his life, is involved with the local historical society, has published in the field and is currently involved in setting up and exhibit.... yet he says he is not sure what Public History is and whether previous History Departments at Goshen College would have approved of it. This reminds me of our talk in class about the tensions between Public and Academic historians.

2. He said that he is more interested in the beauty of the architecture in doing historic preservation than in the sociology of the neighborhood. That is an interesting comment on all of the different ways that people can approach the same work from different perspectives. He is unhappy when he sees so many houses in the neighborhood falling into disrepair.

3. He said that Goshen got a designation on the National Register of Historic Districts in 1981. The work was essentially done by one women and probably could not be pulled off in the same way today since there is so much more paperwork and the criteria are much stricter. Goshen has one of the largest Historic Districts in the state. It includes both commercial and residential areas and is perhaps too big to really take care of and restore. But it does mean that there is some protection for many houses in Goshen if people apply for the federal money. However unless it is federal money being used to destroy the house there is no federal protection if a private owner wants to tear it down. There are no local laws that would protect houses on the historic register expect now for the downtown commercial district of two blocks.

4. Showing us photographs of houses in the East Lincoln Crossroads Neighborhood was a good introduction to architectural styles! Who knew that most of them were Queen Ann style! I would guess that our houses further back into the neighborhood might not be Queen Ann but we will see.