While it’s fair to say that there is more awareness and appreciation of historic styles than there was forty years ago, it’s also fair to say that there is room for improvement – especially where issues of scale, proportion, details and historic accuracy are concerned. Much like the window discussed here yesterday, some new buildings – those which are ostensibly designed to pay homage to history – frequently display the startling effects of good intentions falling short of honoring historic precedent.
In this post I’ll cover two examples of this phenomenon – in each case a new building was built which emulated one it had replaced in an effort to maintain an historic association.
Here is a photo of the first of our two featured subjects:
The first is the former Brookville Hotel in Brookville, Kansas. This is the original (c. 1870) hotel building. It is covered in vinyl siding, and has suffered a few indignities over the years, but still retains its “Wild West” aura. Such pieces of authentic frontier history are increasingly rare… even the original bracketed cornice and 6/6 window sash survive on the second floor.
A souvenir postcard from the 1940’s showing an earlier – and more interesting – porch design. This may have been the original appearance as the two adjacent (c. 1900) masonry buildings had not yet been built when this view was first recorded.
OK; now we are familiar with the original. When the popular restaurant specializing in fried chicken was to be relocated to a nearby town, the decision was made to recreate the distinctive and memorable Italianate facade which was a vital part of the restaurant’s image. Essentially, everything was just super-sized without regard to scale. Visibility from the adjacent interstate highway running past the new location was, understandably, more critical from a business point of view than historical accuracy. But lost in the translation was the window sash style (original 6/6 sash were scrapped in the new design). The opportunity to create a more historically accurate porch was also missed. The end result is more of an exaggerated, cartoon, caricature of historic architecture than an accurate reflection of it. The decision to also “recreate” the adjacent storefronts seems especially comical. They, too, have assumed grotesque proportions:
Taller! Wider! More windows!
The truly sad part, however, is what has become of the original hotel building. While writing this post, I made the mistake of checking out the scene via Google Street View. I have learned that the hotel structure has (understandably) been removed from the National Register of Historic Places as a result of the willful vandalism remodeling. Here is what the site looked like in 2013:
What is this? It more than saddens me to see genuine history discarded in favor of… something else. Why couldn’t the stone storefronts been sacrificed instead?
Shall we move on to our second super-sized bit of “history”?
This was the Carnegie Library in Hays, Kansas. It was built in 1911 and razed in the late 1960’s.
This library was razed when a much-needed, larger, replacement was built in 1968. Eventually it, too, became cramped and a new building was planned. This time the design would pay homage to the 1911 library, which it does, but in an oddly-scaled manner. Like a McMansion, only more visible and more accessible to the general public:
Is it just me, or does anyone else find this disturbing? Image courtesy Google Street View.
Count me as disturbed.
What they did to the facade of the Brookville Hotel feels like a punch in the stomach.
HOW did anybody think that throwing such history into the dumpster was an improvement?????????
Argh!!!!!!!
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who have nothing but contempt for history; the fact is one of the reasons the world is as screwed up as it is. Thanks for caring.
I find it more comical than disturbing.
Yes, they destroyed a building that was once on the National Register of Historic Places. Yes, that’s disturbing. There should be a full investigation of how that was allowed to happen.
But the stone building next to that building was equally as old, I’m willing to bet. And it’s in better condition, I’m willing to bet. Yet you’re perfectly willing that it be sacrificed to the gods of progress rather than it’s vinyl-sided neighbor with more “history”. I want a full investigation of why it was certified as more historical in the first place. Oh, that’s right, they served excellent fried chicken there, so people have warm feelings about it in their gut.
But what’s really comical is the library. I just take one look at that new building with its two clashing styles and I irresistibly want to laugh. The original was a rather silly fortress for books. They took the most grotesque part of the old and pasted it onto the new like 3D wallpaper. All this entrance is missing is a drawbridge they can pull up at night to keep the books safe.
Am I being callous? Not really. The time to be upset was 1968 when the decision was made to pull down the original building which still was structurally sound and historically important. Now all that’s left is a caricature, so you might as well laugh at the comical effect.