Who Can You Believe

[L Verge]

If you stop and think about it, structures in D.C. were pretty much under control of Congress until the mid-20th century. Most historic preservation in the U.S. was done on the local or state level starting after the Civil War. The Ladies of Mount Vernon had saved that wonderful place right before the war, and then came the Williamsburg project under the Rockefellers in the early-1900s. FDR's creation of the WPA put out-of-work architects busy photographing and documenting Historic American Buildings surveys.

However, I think we can give a lot of credit to Jackie Kennedy for putting a national spin on recognizing the value of historical preservation. Her efforts with the White House and other interests raised awareness, and by 1966 Congress had passed the National Historic Preservation Act that has helped so many. They even tagged part of the National Transportation Act of the same year to protect sites that could be destroyed by the new infrastructure laws enacted under Eisenhower.

I have been told that JFK remarked during his inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue that the old street was in deplorable shape and that the neighborhood needed a facelift. It took awhile, but the city made it work. Too bad that someone did not have the foresight to save the Old Clubhouse.