How do your ruin Historic Preservation possibilities? You make one little decision at a time that seems reasonable in itself, but which alters the community in ways that cannot be recovered.

When Historic Preservation discussions only focus on one property at a time the immediate subjects tend to be of the “triage” nature, i.e. It is too expensive. And, we have much higher priorities for our resources. The site is needed for something else. Etc. I have never heard of a case in which saving a historic property was the cheapest or easiest option.

However, Historic Preservation is also applicable and important to neighborhoods and communities more generally. Is the removal of an individual historic property really about how much it would cost to save it? Or, is the removal really about altering the community around it to be more amenable to the property owner’s other priorities?

In the purported case of Strawn Cottage and the need for “additional parking” for the College – the Hood Master Plan explains what they really want. They want to push Brodbeck Drive eastward straight through the Strawn Cottage lot to give the Campus a direct route to West 5th Street. They want to close Martha Church Drive and make that area a pedestrian only zone, diverting all traffic that uses that road now to other roads including 5th Street or Hood Alley. . They want to close access to the southeastern corner of campus that now exists behind Alumnae House to force even more traffic through the Hood Alley - West 5th Street Intersection. They want to change the nature of Hood Alley from a one-way local lane into a rebuilt two-way road connecting Park Avenue and Rosemont Avenue (passing in front of their own daycare center.) Given the limited road network in the Hood area because of the College and the Hospital campuses any new two-lane road can be expected to be heavily used (and there are significant numbers of Hood drivers that go up the wrong way on the Alley already).

Making a Master Plan for the interior of one’s campus makes perfect sense. Basing that Master Plan on a creeping alteration of the neighborhood outside the campus that degrades the neighborhood (and removes a historic structure) does not.