Progress, Prudence, and Preservation

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Many of my memories are associated with buildings: a favorite store, a much frequented restaurant, the site of a celebration. Every time one of these businesses closes and the building is leveled or another business opens in the same location, it is as if a part of our past has been taken away. One of the places that had many memories for my family was the White Castle restaurant in St. Matthews. My husband remembers the building from his childhood. We took my nephew and niece to the restaurant when they visited us from upstate New York in the late 1980’s and we often went there with our children for an afternoon snack or an after game treat. My sons and their friends would always walk to White Castle when they had sleepovers at our house. Standing in line behind an intoxicated customer at midnight was a common experience because the restaurant was one of the few places that was open late at night.

In April 2002 the White Castle in St. Matthews closed its doors after 63 years in business. The reason given by the powers that be was the location could not accommodate a drive-thru window. Offers were made to buy the restaurant in an attempt to keep it from closing, but the offers were rejected. The company claimed other locations in the area were being considered for a new restaurant. Eight years later St. Matthews still lacks a White Castle restaurant and the site of the old building is now occupied by a bank with a drive-thru window. Unfortunately, destruction of “landmarks” in the name of progress is all too common.

I yearn for the days when I could go downtown to shop at large department stores like Stewart's in Louisville, KY or Sibley's in Rochester, NY. I miss buying fabric and buttons at Baer’s Fabric on Market Street, a family owned business that had been in operation for 103 years before closing in July 2008, and seeing a movie at a neighborhood theater like the Vogue which was within walking distance of my home. Businesses are closed and buildings are razed in the name of progress, but the modern replacements lack the charm, character and memories of the ones they replace.

Today many cities in America are similar. The names of the cities are unimportant. We might as well call them anyplace, USA. You can shop at the same stores and dine at the same restaurants anywhere you travel. Being able to eat Kentucky Friend Chicken or McDonald’s burgers in China or France is not progress. Closing a restaurant that was part of a community for 63 years under false pretenses and replacing it with a bank when there were 20 other banks within a two mile radius was a decision based on corporate greed rather than the needs and desires of the community. Progress should be tempered with prudence and preservation. The bank building on the site of the old White Castle may be more aesthetically appealing, but it is just another bank. White Castle was an old familiar friend that can't be replaced.

"A building does not have to be an important work of architecture to become a first-rate landmark. Landmarks are not created by architects. They are fashioned by those who encounter them after they are built. The essential feature of a landmark is not its design, but the place it holds in a city's memory. Compared to the place it occupies in social history, a landmark's artistic qualities are incidental." ~Herbert Muschamp
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