The Passing Of Time

We lose each and every time a municipal building, old school, courthouse, town hall, etc. is lost.  Maintenance for these public buildings should begin the day it is completed and never cease. 

Another sign of our "throw away" society that would replace rather than maintain and treasure.

What a beautiful building. Like you, I wish someone would do something about restoring and preserving history.

Tom, it is too bad progress removes what history a city may have. It looks like it would have been a nice looking building it its day. Thanks.

What often impedes the restoration of fine old buildings like this is the regulations about lead paint, asbestos, minimum widths for doorways, requirements for elevators in public buildings, etc. The expense of conforming to all the new rules outweighs the historic and aesthetic value of a project such as this. We lose.

Wow!  A commuter train in Dallas!  I grew up in that area - back in the day when everyone commuted to work using... cars.  Progress.

Pat is right, I love old buildings too.  Maybe this is something that NAR could get behind.  The money end of things has to work out.  There are attempts to make it work, like Historic Districts etc, but so many times there are real possibilities for reusing a building that are shut down by well-meaning regulations.  Legislating more flexibility from the federal level might be something NAR would help with.  For instance if you change the use of a building then you have to bring everything up to current code - that right there shoots down many buildings re-use.

Nice work to restore and preserve, Thumbs up!

Tom, I, too, am an old building-phile, and I like to ponder the history of old buildings and homes, just like you.  I agree with Kathy - it would be great if NAR could create some off shoot that could foster the preservtion of these old buildings.  Most other, older countries are full of old buildings, most of them much older than the ones we have in the US, that have been preserved and restored.  There should be a place in most city codes for protecting and preserving historica buildings without bringing them up to modern codes?

I also am a lover of great or unique architecture.  You can tell that this abandoned building could be absolutely stunning.  I can see what it resonates with you.  Hopefully it will get a makeover!

Your riding on a commuter train in Dallas is what caught my attention at first! Can't wait until we get our A-Train in Denton County connected to DART lines! Then, of course, agree with you on old building and desire for preservation - especially here in the young land of Texas! (sorry, i am from Kiev, Ukraine with 1500 plus years of history!

We raze far too many historical buildings, but until we move away from preferring new to old the trend will continue.

That is a lovely old building.  Too bad they didn't make condos out of it before it was too far gone.  I recently saw a school turned into condos.

Restoration of old buildings takes a lot of time and energy... and a contractor who is passionate about doing it. Maybe someone in the Dallas area will see your post and do something about it. Our town has begun a downtown rejuvenation project and it is making headway. I can see already the positive changes taking place, and our downtown becoming more and more popular. It is possible, but it takes time, energy, money, and passion! Appreciate your post.

Tom  It would be a crime if that school was not preserved and given new life

Tom, 

Gorgeous building.  I love the architecture.  Having said that, it's such a challenge to handle the maintenance of a building that has had a ton of deferred maintenance.  I know IBM torn down it's old HQ as just re-wiring costs alone made it cheaper to build a new HQ.  

Such a shame!

All the best, Michelle

Tom. old structures do have many tales to tell and it seems only the old timers or the history books have those secrets.

It's too bad awesome buildings like that don't get restored and used in other ways. Instead they get torn down for yet another strip mall or whatever.

That is sad.  It seems like someone should step in and try to do something.