Why Places Are Preserved: Historic Districts in American and European Cities

This paper presents historic preservation as a movement caught up in issues and conflicts that are ordinary and serious concerns for many Americans and Europeans. It examines rationales for the designation of historic districts in five metropolitan areas: London, Paris, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. One rationale for historic preservation that is of interest to geographers-enhancing a sense of place-was found to be especially important but in need of further discussion in most historic districts. The role of historic preservation in these study areas is much broader and less elitist or antiquarian than has been suggested in many interpretations of the preservation movement.