The Once and Future New York: Historic Preservation and the Modern City. By Randall Mason. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009. xxxiv, 307 pp. Cloth, $84.00, ISBN 978-0-8166-5603-5. Paper, $27.95, ISBN 978-0-8166-5604-2.)

Abstract

Historians usually place the origin of New York City's historic preservation movement in 1960s attempts to save Pennsylvania Station. Randall Mason's book demonstrates that the movement actually started as part of Progressivism in the 1890s, when preservationists identified, commemorated, and protected selected sites. Those sites formed a “memory infrastructure” of buildings, places, and public art that preservationists believed created a collective memory that would educate the public in history and patriotic virtues. Mason identifies the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society (ashps) as one of the leading heritage conservation institutions and examines its representative sites. The many attempts to redesign New York's City Hall Park were part of a robust debate about symbolism, real estate, urban design, transportation, an expanding city government, and politics. The plan for the Bronx River Parkway addressed the ecology, economy, appearance, selected history, and social character of the Bronx River valley to create a park and a road.