What We Are Losing
For all of our municipal fondness for days gone by, Atlanta still has a nasty habit of exchanging what it has for what it wants.
In May of 2005, the Atlanta Preservation Center updated its annual list of Endangered Historic Places. This year’s list includes five schools, several area landmarks and even an entire neighborhood. About half of these places are under threat of conversion into a parking lot, a condominium or some combination of the two.
Perhaps the most interesting new entry on this year’s list is the 101-year-old Dupre Manufacturing Company. Of course, you might know this now defunct excelsior plant by another name: The Masquerade.
So what can be done? The best hope for these fading places probably lies with the continued efforts of the APC, or possibly Atlanta’s Urban Design Commission. Beyond that, it never hurts to keep these locations fresh on Atlanta’s collective mind. Talk about them, take photos where you can and get involved.
This city’s love affair for the wrecking ball, bulldozer and chainsaw really saddens me.
I think the masquerade is disqusting and should be torn down for something nicer. It’ll probably shoot up in flames from the drugs stuck in the floor catching on fire as they demolish that place, ha ha. I actually attended an event there about 1.5 years ago and was absolutely amazed by how totally run-down and nasty it was. Good riddance to the Masquerade..
I have a love-hate relationship with Atlanta’s development.
On one side, working in the history trade, it saddens me to see the old buildings fall. On the other side, I think that a lot of what is considered “historic” is not really historic, but merely “old.”
You have to pick and choose what to preserve, otherwise you end up with a decrepit city and sparkling new suburbs, as less and less space is available in town.
Historic preservation is one of my hot button issues. (Translation: I want to preserve the old! I don’t want to knock stuff down! Old architecture is important, not to mention cool!) Yet for some reason I can’t say I’m saddened much by the prospect of the Masquerade being torn down. The schools? Now that’s another matter… Lofts, anyone? Mixed-use space?