Historic Preservation Moves to the Suburbs

"Is there really anything 'historic' about cookie-cutter subdivisions? And if the ubiquitous tract house is worth saving — well, what then? Is the rest of postwar suburbia — McDonald’s, strip malls and motels — also headed for the National Register of Historic Places? These issues are only beginning to surface in American communities, especially in the South and West, where the bulk of everything that’s ever been built came after World War II. As local officials are increasingly asked to pass judgment on a period that preservationists call 'the recent past,' they’ll have to sort out for themselves the parts of suburban sprawl that are worth saving from redevelopment."

"This coming of age raises some important public policy questions.. Now, preservationists find themselves trying to educate the public about why the style is important even when it isn’t beautiful, and why examples must be saved for future generations. Then there is the politics of suburban sprawl. The National Trust and its state and local partners are big advocates of sprawl-busting 'smart growth' policies — even as they now find themselves defending developments that are essentially the template upon which suburban sprawl was built."