Freedom's Way?

statler

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The Globe said:
Park Service is 1 step closer to creating Heritage Area in state
20 areas awaiting federal approval

By Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Correspondent | July 25, 2006

A National Park Service advisory panel will recommend today that the agency be given the power to designate National Heritage Areas without congressional approval, a move that could give the green light to long-delayed plans for a Heritage Area west of Boston.

Recognition as a National Heritage Area -- a geographic area of national historical significance that qualifies for millions of dollars in federal grants -- requires an act of Congress, a process that preservation groups say is often cumbersome and has led to a backup of about 20 areas waiting for federal approval.

The proposed ``Freedom's Way" region in New England covers an area of 45 towns in Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire that were hotbeds of support for Patriot forces against the British during the American Revolution, as well as for the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage during the 19th century.

Plans for Freedom's Way include sites in the Boston suburbs of Concord, Lexington, and Arlington, and extends as far west to the towns of Winchendon and north to Amherst, N.H.

Promoting the museums and historical landmarks in the area as a single, nationally recognized historic region would increase tourism, supporters of the plan said. After being designated, however, the landmarks must receive financial commitments from other sources -- including state funds and private sector donations -- in order to receive matching federal funds.

The Park Service report, described by officials who have read it, recommends allowing the service to set up a standard procedure for getting applications instead of leaving every decision up to Congress.

``If this does break the logjam, then we're up and running," said Marge Darby, chair of the Freedom's Way Heritage Association, a Devens-based nonprofit group that has lobbied for federal recognition since 1993.

Darby said raising private donations to meet federal requirements wouldn't be a problem because the plan has widespread community support.

The Senate has already passed legislation allowing the Park Service to select Heritage sites in 2004; supporters hope today's report, compiled by an advisory committee appointed by the White House, will put pressure on the House of Representatives to follow suit. Two other regions in New England -- the Upper Housatonic Valley in Connecticut and western Massachusetts and the Lake Champlain Valley in Vermont and New York -- are also on the waiting list.

Some property rights groups do not want expansion of the Heritage Areas program, which they say encourages towns to adopt stricter zoning; other critics worry Heritage Areas were diverting Park Service funding away from conventional National Parks.

Congress has already established two other Heritage regions in the Boston area: the Essex National Heritage Area on the North Shore and the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Annie Harris, the executive director of the Essex National Heritage Area, said the report was a vote of confidence in a program that began in the 1980s as an experiment with the private sector -- over the opposition of some in the Park Service.

Unlike national parks, the government does not own or manage Heritage Areas, and the federal government does not have a say over how the areas are used. Under the rules, at least half of the funding for Heritage Areas must come from sources other than the federal government .

Darby said if Freedom's Way wins federal approval, grant money would be used to cross-promote museums and historical sites that already exist in the region, many of which are cash-strapped.

Darby said museum officials involved in the planning for Freedom's Way have also discussed using the money for information kiosks and for buses to take tourists to and from each site and on a ``passport" program to encourage tourists to explore different parts of the region.

The Massachusetts communities that would be included in the Heritage Area are: Winchendon, Ashburnham, Ashby, Townsend,Pepperell, Dunstable, Gardner, Westminster, Fitchburg, Lunenburg, Shirley, Ayer, Groton, Leominster, Lancaster, Harvard, Littleton, Westford, Princeton, Sterling, Boxborough, Acton, Carlisle, Clinton, Bolton, Stow, Maynard, Concord, Bedford, Hudson, Sudbury, Lincoln, Lexington, Woburn, Arlington, Medford, and Malden.
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It is too bad Billerica isn't included considering that we have many veterans of the Revolution buried here including people who fought at Bunker Hill. We also have a large collection of pre-Revolution architecture.
 
And I'm curious why Somerville isn't included, since we have two prominent Revolutionary-era sites, Prospect Hill Tower and the Old Powder House.

The Powder House was recently restored, but the Tower is in poor structural condition and could use some attention from the National Park Service.
 
Maybe my representatives aren't aware, I'll have to send an e-mail and see.
 
Somerville and Billerica definitely should be on that list. Asa Pollard was from that town, Sam Adams had a hideout there, there was a notorious tavern for the Sons of Liberty, and a school I think Ben Franklin either went to or taught at there. Its also a centrally located in the former Shawshin territory, so as the highways do now, its was always a place to be passing through. I don't get why all of its bordering towns are included except for it. Somerville's exclusion from the list is downright insulting as well.
 
Maybe you should check with the Freedom's Way Heritage Association. They are on the web at http://www.freedomsway.org/. From their home page:
The Freedom's Way Heritage Area, comprising 37 communities in Massachusetts and 8 New Hampshire communities, is a region with a series of historic events that influenced democratic forms of governance and the development of intellectual traditions that underpin American freedom, democracy, conservation, and social justice. These 45 towns share common threads that have contributed toward this special landscape of American history. Freedom's Way truly is the "Landscape of Visionaries and Experimenters". All Americans have been affected by generations of people who have shaped the heart of Freedom's Way.

The Freedom's Way story is interpreted in three separate but interwoven themes:
Rediscovering the Native Landscape
Inventing the New England Landscape
Shaping the Landscape of Democracy


A strong sense of land stewardship is the legacy of the Native Americans, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Benton MacKaye, and scores of others. They have connected the use of the landscape to a deeper understanding of ideas about independence, individual rights, conservation, social justice, and democracy. Evidence of this connection is in the picturesque town commons, Shaker villages, Bronson Alcott's Fruitlands, and Thoreau's walks through the countryside. Having learned to cherish the native land, the Freedom's Way towns inspire a sense of stewardship in children and adults, for now and in the future.

The Freedom's Way Heritage Association, Inc. (FWHA) is a grass roots 501 (c) (3) organization whose goal is to preserve, protect and promote the shared nationally significant historical, cultural, natural, and recreational resources of the region. FWHA forms partnerships with local, regional, state, and federal governmental entities, public and private sector organizations and individuals. to ensure that a Cultural Heritage and Management Plan for Freedom's Way will be developed and that appropriate entities carry it out. Membership is open to individuals and organizations.

Establishment of Freedom's Way as a National Heritage Area will encourage theme related physical structures and landscapes of importance to be preserved and interpreted, and will actively engage communities and citizens in partnering to maintain the rich resources and history. Congressional designation will recognize the national significance of the Area and provide for authorization of Federal financial support. The National Park Service role will also be defined as will be the responsibilities and authority of the partners.

As part of the National Heritage Area, cultural heritage trails will link the Freedom's Way towns. The trails will illustrate the American ethos that recognizes the interconnections between people and the landscape. Signs, interpretive sites, maps, and interpretive centers will lead the visitor to discover the stories of the land, the people and their ideas.
 
Burlington as well, though it was Woburn's semi-independent Second Parish at the time, the first British prisoners of war were held there (in a house where the Burlington Mall now stands), the Parish had its own militia (it mustered at the Meetinghouse, which is still standing today), and was where John Hancock and Adams fled when word came that there were troops on their way to arrest them (to the Sewall House before fleeing again to the Amos Wyman house, just over the line in Billerica). It is also believed that Adams muttered his famous "glorious day" line to Hancock after hearing gunfire in Lexington while fleeing making their way from the Sewall House to the Amos Wyman House.
 
This looks like another attempt to restrict any and all development in these towns. A NIMBY's paradise.

Freedom's Way - sounds like wacky militia group from Montana.

I vote no for this. I think we should preserve individual structures and areas, not whole towns. Am I wrong? Does anyone else feel this way?
 

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