This morning I read in the Washington Post that the Montgomery County Council voted NOT to give the Wheaton Recreational Center historic status. Although advocates said the building's pagoda style roof made it special, the council ultimately disagreed. The county can now tear the building down (likely) and build a new, updated rec center. 
So, this morning I decided to head over to the center to see what all the fuss was about and take some pictures. Full disclosure, I'm not from MOCO and had never been to the Wheaton Rec Center before this morning. I'm also skeptical about battles to have particular buildings deemed historic. It is often the go-to tactic of people resistant to change of any type. When I lived in DC, for example, several people in my neighborhood tried to have our local Giant designated as a historical structure. The building wasn't historical--it was a dumpy brick block with the charm of a paper cut (see it here)--but they were willing to use any available weapon to prevent redevelopment of the property. Fortunately, the Wheaton Rec Center was nicer than my old Giant, and prettier than I thought it would be. That's not to say it hasn't seen better days. It has.
Ultimately, though, I don't have a dog in this race. My visit did remind me, though, how much heart and meaning all of us invest in particular places. It's never the bricks and mortar that people love. It's not even the architecture in most cases. Rather, its the association to other people, particular events, or even a mood of a certain time or place.
Hell, Led Zeppelin played at the Wheaton Rec Center (we think--attendees might have been too stoned to remember the right location). There were probably lots of girls screaming over a shirtless Robert Plant, and just as many guys playing air guitar to Stairway to Heaven. I'm too young to have seen the bad boyz of Led Zeppelin, but I can imagine how stoked I would have been if I had, and why I might never want to see the building go.
Good 'ol Wheaton Rec Center. But you know what, once the new one is built and then deem too old to be of service, people will try to keep that building from being destroyed because of their own feelings of inadecuacy towards getting old.
ReplyDeleteLet's face it people, we are getting old and so are our buildings. But we can at leas build better buildings now.
It is a nice looking building, though. But I'm sure the new one will be nice looking, too.