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citizen’s love for his city; its towers and domes pin his affections, and the
more because in every case the composition has inevitably a meaning, a
cleanness and accuracy of significance, that makes it more than merely a
pretty picture. It is a work of art which speaks not to the eye alone, nor to
the head alone but unitedly, to sense, brain and sentiment.’’ Such efforts
would assure ‘‘a happier people, a better citizen, democratically instructed
and more artistic in mind and soul, would arise from this beautiful and
ceremonial American city.’’
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A contributor to the journalAmerican City
added, ‘‘A city which does nothing except to police and clean the streets
means little. But when it adds schools, libraries, galleries, parks, baths,
lights, heat, homes, and transportation, it awakens interest in itself. The cit-
izen shows some care for him. He looks upon it as his city, and not as a
thing apart from him; he becomes a good citizen because it is his city.’’
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An early form of the historic preservation movement took a similar
position, according to Randall Mason’s examination of turn-of-the-century
New York. Members of the American Scenic Preservation Society, orga-
nized ‘‘to minister to both the physical and spiritual well-being of the peo-
ple,’’ believed that the cherishing of historical landmarks would ‘‘make
better citizens of our people’’ and ‘‘stabilize our cherished political institu-
tions.’’ By assuring a ‘‘landscape of memory,’’ as Mason describes it, such
organizations intended to instill in citizens ‘‘a proper dignified, celebratory
civic memory in the form of stone, bronze, authentic buildings, and histori-
cal park landscapes.’’ By thus teaching civic patriotism, one preservationist
claimed, the city ‘‘becomes more than a mere collection of buildings. . . .
Instead, it becomes a living organism with an interesting and honored past
and a future to which every citizen ought to contribute, and for which every
citizen should cherish great concern.’’ ‘‘By giving historical memory lasting
form in the built environment, it was thought, the particular memory was
endowed with power to reform the public at large,’’ Mason concludes.
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Perhaps the most ambitious, if not ultimately influential, embellish-
ment came in the form of grand civic centers inspired by the Court of
Honor at the1893World’s Fair. The vision, formed in Chicago and ex-
tended in Washington, was that of a grouping of public structures classical
in style and monumental enough in construction to match the nation’s
highest ideals. Created in the unplanned, congested, and increasingly ugly
city, such bodies of work would prove uplifting, even as they conveyed a
necessary civic lesson to an increasingly diverse population. Although it
took virtually a generation to achieve the vision of a monumental core at
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