Preserving New England
“New England is the American backdrop: everybody’s hometown, the nation’s Christmas card,” writes Jane Holtz Kay in the prologue to this landmark book. If New England is the image of America, it is also a region in flux. Today, and every decade since its settlement, the landscape of New England is the locus of change, development – and turmoil.
Preserving New England explores both the stereotypes of New England and the reality behind its landscape of town and farm, mountain and river valley. From the Old Indian House and the Boston waterfront to Newport’s mansions and the Appalachian Trail, Kay and co-author Pauline Chase-Harrell trace the origins of the rich architectural heritage of the region and the efforts made to preserve key structures and sites.
Preserving New England is more than just a picture book of splendid estates, nature preserves, and urban neighborhoods – it is a manual on how to keep them. The authors bring to life the drama of New Englanders fighting to revive once-defunct Main Streets of halt the hardtopping of farmland, and clarify the broader preservation and conservation issues behind the scenes. Both a primer for action and a lively photographic narrative, the book gives us an indelible picture of the way New England is – and of what it may become.