I'm a historic preservationist...

By Mike Corbett

I can’t help it. I do appreciate new building technology, but I admire the style, scale and workmanship of many historic buildings. They really don’t build them like that anymore, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. Good because the building industry has improved in so many ways. Bad because, well, I miss the craftsmanship that went into so many of our old buildings and I want to retain as much of it as we can.

So I was delighted when I learned HAND was going renovate two buildings on Noblesville’s south 8^thSt.I know how tempting it is to raze an old building and start over. It’s often cheaper, cleaner and easier. But it’s not necessarily better. In a city like Noblesville, where historic buildings are part of the city’s character, tearing them down is often a mistake unless they are so far gone they just can’t be saved. HAND ended up having to remove much of both buildings, but they did what they could to save the facades. It cost more, but it was worth it. Shari Held tells the story on page 20. I am proud to serve on one of HAND’s committees and I will do what I can to ensure they continue to honor Noblesville’s heritage.

Ironically, just a couple of blocks away, another historic building met a very different fate. The city acquired a modest home as part of a deal to purchase an adjacent lot that had substandard trailers on it. The trailers had to go but the house could have been saved. I’m sure it was cheaper, cleaner and easier to bulldoze it. But, I’m not convinced it was better. We now have a gravel lot in the middle of a residential block that is far less attractive, and certainly less useful, than the affordable home it replaced.

I consider our historic building stock to be invested assets that we need to preserve and improve. Destroying those assets, except in the most extreme circumstances, is wasteful. Furthermore, it changes the character of our streetscapes and that’s something that is very difficult to replace. They just don’t make them like that any more, so let’s keep what we have.