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SOHO President's Message
May/June 2018
By Jaye MacAskill
May is National Preservation Month! An entire 31 days dedicated to SOHO's "forever" cause presents a vital opportunity to emphasize and promote just how much historic buildings and places matter. Not only do they form the rich backdrops of our lives and bring pride to our communities, they also contribute to the distinct identities of neighborhoods, cities and regions, help fuel our economy, and are good for the environment! Throughout May, SOHO, along with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and preservation groups across the country, will be celebrating our heritage in various ways, including honoring local heroes with SOHO's prestigious Annual People In Preservation Awards.
Do you recall how you became interested in historic places? I think most of us can trace a deep appreciation for historic places back to a pretty young age, so far back that for some of us, loving old buildings is practically in our blood!
Even though I wasn't old enough to fully appreciate it at the time, I was fortunate to grow up in a place with beautiful historic architecture and lovely scenery. No, not California. I was born hundreds of miles to the north, in Nanaimo, on central Vancouver Island, Canada. Back then, Nanaimo was a gritty, hardscrabble, working-class town whose heydays had clearly come and gone. The downtown waterfront, with its blocks of commercial Victorian brick architecture and early 20th-century stone buildings, was about as desolate as could be. Nevertheless, as an adventurous teenager, I was drawn in by its sense of mystery and tinge of intrigue.
You know me as SOHO's (ahem) mature and hard-working president, but a large chunk of my formative years in the 1980s was spent hanging around that sketchy downtown with my fellow, socially outcast punk rock and skateboarder friends. We didn't know much about history or architecture, but walking the seedy streets somehow felt cooler and more interesting than going to the mall. Before I was old enough to drive, I'd take the bus downtown to troll the Goodwill and other thrift stores for funky vintage clothes, eat fried egg sandwiches at the Woolworth's lunch counter, and hit the used book stores.
If you'd told me then, I'd have been very surprised to hear that one day Nanaimo would be seen as a picturesque travel destination and cruise ship port, let alone regarded as a model for historic preservation programs throughout Canada. How on earth did that happen?! Economic downturn, it's true, can be a historic preservationist's best friend.
After years of neglect, people started to realize that Nanaimo's well-preserved core was truly something special, that there was value in all that history.
Although some of my old haunts are sadly gone, like the Spanish Revival style Fiesta Bowl & Theatre complex, remarkably, many are still standing. I'm happy to know that the Modern Café, even though it has been radically transformed into a trendy bistro, is still in business. That's where my high school pals and I would meet up on Friday nights to buy time drinking coffee and eating French fries until the waitress would predictably (but lovingly) kick us out. The name and epic neon sign are still there, even though the fluorescent interior lighting and display cases containing the former owner's weird and extensive doll collection are (probably for the better) no longer with us.
National Preservation Month is a fruitful time to reflect on how interacting with historic buildings and places has made us who we are, and how they continue to influence our lives. My early experiences in Nanaimo had a significant impact on shaping me into a historic preservationist. Memories from my youth are at least part of what compels me to want to save similar, everyday places from disappearing entirely from our modern world.
If historic buildings and places matter to you too, please take some time this month to express that in concrete and meaningful ways. In today's economic climate, it takes major, strategic efforts and multiple collective voices to save historic buildings and sites. Please show your support during Preservation Month by becoming a SOHO member, if you're not already, and by donating to our ongoing efforts to preserve San Diego's endangered architectural and cultural heritage, sites and landscapes.
And, the National Trust helps you give a shout out to your favorite San Diego historic places as you photograph them with bold red signs that say This Place Matters or Este Lugar Me Importa. For downloadable signs, campaign toolkits, and more, click HERE.
And please plan to join us May 31 when we salute this year's People In Preservation Award winners. This lovely, afternoon event in the Marston House Museum's formal garden typically sells out, so get your tickets HERE.
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