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Why Historic Preservation?The history of a community contributes to its personality. Preserving the history of a placethrough its significant historic resources gives a community its unique character. Historicpreservation provides a link to the roots of the community and its people. Overall, historicpreservation adds to the quality of life making for a more livable community. Historicpreservation involves much more than simply saving and restoring old buildings and sites ofhistoric importance; there are economic, cultural, environmental, and educational benefits ofhistoric preservation, all of which are inextricably connected to one another and to the livingmemory of involved communities.Historic preservation is beneficial to the community in the following ways:

Culturallya community is richer for having the tangible presence of past eras and historicstyles. Economicallya community benefits from increased property values and tax revenues

when historic buildings are protected and made the focal point of revitalization and when thecommunity is attractive to visitors seeking heritage tourism opportunities. Sociallya community benefits when citizens take pride in its history and mutual concernfor the protection of the historic building fabric. Developmentallya community benefits from having a concerted and well-definedplanning approach for the protection of historic buildings while accommodating healthy growth. Environmentallya community benefits when historic buildings are restored or

rehabilitated rather than demolished and disposed of in the community landfill. Educationallya community benefits through teaching local heritage and theunderstanding of the past and the resultant cultural respect by its citizens.Historic Preservation Holds Many Benefits for Local CommunitiesHistoric preservation is an important investment in the present and future. For manypreservationists, safeguarding the past through its physical remains is reason enough to justifypreservation efforts. However, for those without prior involvement with such efforts, there aremany other more tangible reasons why historic preservation matters.Economic Benefits of Historic PreservationHistoric preservation is a powerful economic engine. In an overwhelming number of economicdevelopment studies, historic preservation is a demonstrated tool for providing jobs, increasinghousehold income, increasing the tax base and increasing tourism dollars.Preservation is an effective tool to revitalize neighborhoods, older communities and commercialdistricts. The heart and soul of most towns is the downtown, which represent a communityssocial identity as well as its economic engine. Reinvestment and revitalizing main streets is themost significant economic-development program most communities can undertake. In examplesacross the world, it is shown that substantive, sustainable and successful city revitalization resultsfrom activities that are preservation-based.

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Preservation creates jobs. Because rehabilitation and restoration activities work with existingmaterials, projects are labor intensive and create more jobs than new construction. While theoverall cost of projects is often comparable to building new, the economic benefit is muchgreater from preservation activities through the creation of well-paying local jobs.

Another important economic benefit is heritage tourism. Many people enjoy a deep fascinationwith the sites where history took place, as well as with the stories they can directly experience byvisiting these historic sites. Heritage tourists, whose travel focuses on historical sites of interest,spend billions of dollars every year and are among the fastest-growing group of tourists. Heritagetourists travels provide hundreds of millions oftax dollars, and billions for the hospitality andtravel industries.

Read Historic Hawaii Foundation's Report on the Economic Benefits of Historic Preservation.Cultural Benefits of Historic PreservationHistoric preservation helps keep communities beautiful, vibrant, and livable, and gives people a

stake in their surroundings. It connects people with their past, and with one another. History is agreat educator, and coming to know the history of a community and its historical sites fosters anindividuals sense of belonging and community pride. Old structures and historic spaces oftenpresent the human scale of history. Their design and construction tell us much about the culturesthat created them and about the traditions and events from which our society grew.

Historic preservation has been shown to be a key ingredient in stabilizing older communities andbringing citizens together. Historic buildings provide a sense of stability and provide a tangiblelink with the past that all can experience.Environmental Benefits of Historic PreservationRestoring buildingsrather than building new ones, or demolishing existing onesisenvironmentally responsible. It is usually more environmentally-friendly to rehabilitate existingstructures and maintain and improve existing infrastructure than to simply destroy and replacethem.Razing historic structures has a triple effect on scarce resources, by throwing away materials andtheir embedded energy; by replacing it with new raw materials; and by expending transportenergy for both. Each existing building is an investment of energy, time, and resources. If thesestructures are simply destroyed, that investment is wasted.

Active historic preservation efforts can help to curb some of the detrimental environmentaleffects of suburban sprawl, including increased traffic patterns, energy consumption, andenvironmental degradation. By safeguarding the historic cores of towns and cities andencouraging reinvestment in them, many adverse effects of growth can be greatly reduced.Educational Benefits of Historic Preservation

The educational opportunities offered by historic preservation are virtually limitless. For students,teachers, and community partners, engaging in historic preservation efforts brings home theimportance of such efforts, and reinforces historical education by allowing all those involved toactively participate in its conservation and protection.

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