Browne’s Addition tour
We're fortunate to live in a city home to many beautiful parks, thanks to the guidance of the Olmsted firm who visited in 1907 from Brookline, Massachusetts, famous for creating New York's Central Park. The best part are the dense neighborhoods cultivated around these public spaces during the era; you can still see tracks from our early alternative transportation system---an electric trolley that carried millions in 1910---embedded in brick where the pavement is cracked along streets. The Victorian homes and green urban canopy seem transplanted and elegantly juxtaposed for a city that too often tells us there’s always room for more parking lots and another artless condo where nobody wants to live. 
Image courtesy of MetroSpokane.
You’ll get the best story of park and neighborhood when Spokane Parks gives their last historical tour of Browne’s Addition for the year, taking place next Monday, August 17th, 6:00-7:30pm. The group will meet at the northeast corner of Coeur d’Alene Park at the corner of Chestnut and 2nd Ave. You can sign up at Parks and Rec., 509-625-6200 or register online here. (Note: There is a $12 cost.)
Understanding what was here before us is key to moving forward; preservation is often a forgotten component when we talk about sustainability since new construction leaves a big carbon footprint.
Donovan D. Rypkema, an economic development consultant from Washington, D.C., wrote, “if a community did nothing but protect its historic neighborhoods it will have advanced every Smart Growth principle. Historic preservation IS Smart Growth. A Smart Growth approach that does not include historic preservation high on the agenda is not only missing a valuable strategy, but, like the historic buildings themselves, an irreplaceable one. A Smart Growth approach that does not include historic preservation high on the agenda is stupid growth, period.”
Bluntly put. He also made the case for surprisingly reticent parties (preservation advocates versus green urban planners) to integrate their efforts:
When you rehabilitate a historic building, you are reducing waste generation. When you reuse a historic building, you are increasing recycling. In fact, historic preservation is the ultimate in recycling.
At most perhaps 10% of what the environmental movement does advances the cause of historic preservation. But 100% of what the preservation movement does advances the cause of the environment.
You cannot have sustainable development without a major role of historic preservation, period. And it’s about time we preservationists start hammering at that until it is broadly understood.
If our greenzo readers are inclined to learn a little more about Spokane’s heritage and our character, swing by Browne’s Addition, and as a curious new resident, DTE will be there. (Of course, it promises to be a nice summer walk in the evening, period, as Rypkema would say.)
