Where stood six now stand none. And nobody cares. After a week long demolition project, the historic houses on First West rest diminished to barren holes in the dirt. Where wood beams supported structure now rubble supports chaos. Where trees and sidewalk provided shade and comfort now pot holes and uneven ground allow heat and unease. Memories of the past once resided inside homes and now they have defected with the Rexburg wind leaving a vacant nothingness and stagnant air. Non-existent homes and cast-away histories give way to a mis-guided future.
The owners of the Pines sealed a lengthy negotiation with the various owners of the houses and soon began plans to put in the Hemming Towers. These buildings will provide much needed housing to many incoming students and better yet will keep urban sprawl down by building up and putting parking down, facilitating an easier walk for future students by keeping things compact, all plusses in my book. The trouble at hand here is not the future, it is the past. It isn’t lovely new apartments that are going up, but it is the destruction of the old ones.
I watched one-by-one the houses be torn down. I rode by them daily on my bike for the past 9 months, through the fall snow, the winter snow, and the spring-time snow; i watched the orange iron beast smash in their sides and crumble their facades, and stump-out their insides, leaving only ruined stairs. I watched the trees they said wouldn’t be taken out be fed to the beast as well, their branches and trunks cracking and snapping under its force. I beheld the pretty brick one smolder and burn, a subject to Madison Fire Department’s training. They kept that one around longer, not because it was pretty but because they needed it to train. It was fed to the beast just like all others. Make way for the future. And forget the past.
The trouble here isn’t the future, its the past. How do we know where we are going if we don’t know where we came from? How do we know who we are if we don’t know who came before us? These houses stood as landmarks, monuments to the past. They were marked with the water line of the Teuton Flood on their walls. Perhaps they even served as shelters for a war veteran or two, veterans whose names are engraved on the sides of that monument that nobody knows about at smith park. Surely they served as the cradle from the world for many good families. And now they will be forgotten.
Without knowing the past we have no sure direction for the future. We will be compass-less, anchor-less. Our culture and Identity are founded on our past. In a world where the unification of global culture increases and interest-based culture skips across nation and state lines, connecting people by mere electronic impulses, we should fight to maintain our geographic and local identity. Leave your mono-tone-earthen-tone fake stone buildings and frozen yogurt for everywhere else. We don’t need it. Give us something new, but give us something that’s ours. Rexburg should maintain its identity, recognize and celebrate its history, and, yes build on it. Innovate, but do not forsake the past. Celebrate in it. Rejoice for it. Learn from it.
In that I close. I beg of you to act. Keep Rexburg Real.
The owners of the Pines sealed a lengthy negotiation with the various owners of the houses and soon began plans to put in the Hemming Towers. These buildings will provide much needed housing to many incoming students and better yet will keep urban sprawl down by building up and putting parking down, facilitating an easier walk for future students by keeping things compact, all plusses in my book. The trouble at hand here is not the future, it is the past. It isn’t lovely new apartments that are going up, but it is the destruction of the old ones.
I watched one-by-one the houses be torn down. I rode by them daily on my bike for the past 9 months, through the fall snow, the winter snow, and the spring-time snow; i watched the orange iron beast smash in their sides and crumble their facades, and stump-out their insides, leaving only ruined stairs. I watched the trees they said wouldn’t be taken out be fed to the beast as well, their branches and trunks cracking and snapping under its force. I beheld the pretty brick one smolder and burn, a subject to Madison Fire Department’s training. They kept that one around longer, not because it was pretty but because they needed it to train. It was fed to the beast just like all others. Make way for the future. And forget the past.
The trouble here isn’t the future, its the past. How do we know where we are going if we don’t know where we came from? How do we know who we are if we don’t know who came before us? These houses stood as landmarks, monuments to the past. They were marked with the water line of the Teuton Flood on their walls. Perhaps they even served as shelters for a war veteran or two, veterans whose names are engraved on the sides of that monument that nobody knows about at smith park. Surely they served as the cradle from the world for many good families. And now they will be forgotten.
Without knowing the past we have no sure direction for the future. We will be compass-less, anchor-less. Our culture and Identity are founded on our past. In a world where the unification of global culture increases and interest-based culture skips across nation and state lines, connecting people by mere electronic impulses, we should fight to maintain our geographic and local identity. Leave your mono-tone-earthen-tone fake stone buildings and frozen yogurt for everywhere else. We don’t need it. Give us something new, but give us something that’s ours. Rexburg should maintain its identity, recognize and celebrate its history, and, yes build on it. Innovate, but do not forsake the past. Celebrate in it. Rejoice for it. Learn from it.
In that I close. I beg of you to act. Keep Rexburg Real.
I came across this post while I was trying to research some homes I saw on college ave that had "Danger No Tresspassing" signs on the front doors. I know a lot of them have been used as college housing in the past, but they are some of the most beautiful homes (on the outside) that Rexburg has. I couldn't find any information, and am so sad and worried that they might just be torn down like so many others. It's like they give no word or warning, just tear away all of our history and leave us with cheaply built apartment complexes.
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