Can emphasizing historic events lead to town revitalization?

by Marian

Visitor Question: Our community is a little bit divided over how much we want to call attention to certain historic events that occurred at different places in our community. For example, in a little square park surrounded by homes, a U.S. president once gave an address. Does this help us to attract more attention or funding for refreshing the landscaping in the park? Or is this just a thing that is of interest to the amateur or professional historian, but not of any relevance to the town as it struggles to find the money and other resources that will be needed to bring the landscaping back to life?

Some recent storms took out a couple of nice trees, leaving the whole thing looking a little bare and also leaving us without the shade that is needed in this climate that can be oppressively hot in the summer. Should we emphasize this historic event, or is this too minor for all but historians?

Do you have any recommendations about how we would call attention to this historic event if doing so will help us find new life in our town and fund needed park renovations?

Editors Reply: The answer to your basic question is a firm "it depends." Variables would include which U.S. president, whether there are several other sites associated with this president within 20 or 30 miles, and what the topic of the speech was. A speech by Abraham Lincoln or FDR would attract more attention than an oration from Chester Arthur.

Similarly, if nearby towns have beat you to the punch and touted their own visits from this U.S. president for years, that will dilute the importance of your own historic event to your average resident.

If this speech concerned U.S. trade policy, that will not stir the imagination as much as this president's first speech about slavery or a momentous oration about 9/11.

I have experience with a town that Abraham Lincoln visited several times, and while this makes for some interest at the local historical museum, it has not done anything to raise the profile of the town, increase its fundraising appeal, or attract outside funding. Based on this and a few other experiences with historic events, it seems unlikely that publicizing this event will be a substantial boon to your town.

So let's set our sights a little smaller. It is definitely possible that if your fundraising needs are fairly minor, you might be able to put together one or two events that raise enough money to plant some replacement trees. Whether that needs to tie into the presidential speech or not is open to debate. People would probably just as likely to participate in your raffle, pancake breakfast, spaghetti supper, or throwback sock hop if no presidential history was mentioned in the promotion.

If you want to capitalize on this historic event, I think your best bet is to create an annual event that would celebrate it. Give it a catchy name, feature live music and barbecue or your local food or beverage specialty, add a few things for the kids such as races or face painting, and then invent some kind of silly contest based on the presidential visit. Maybe you give a prize for the best look-alike to this president and charge a fee to enter the contest. Perhaps if the president mentioned an uphill battle, you have a contest about pushing a marble uphill with your nose or something. You get the idea.

Most events of this type would not be expected to make much money at all the first year, and you should consider it a success if a fair number of townspeople had a good time. But build on what you learn from the experience, keep the parts of the event that were most successful and discard the rest, and then add something new every year.

Usually you will gain some traction if you keep trying, bearing in mind that music, good food, kids, and animals are magic ingredients in a good community event. You have to be disciplined enough to keep your expenses under control though.

You might want to kick things off with a good parade, which builds excitement and interrupts the normal patterns of the day. (See our page on how to put together a neighborhood-scale or town-scale parade.)

Depending on the era during which this speech occurred, you might be able to resurrect some old-fashioned games. While sack races, cake walks, rope pulls, and the like probably wouldn't interest the young people if you just list them on a flyer, when you call attention cleverly to these games as something that would have been likely when President Whoever spoke in your town, they gain more currency.

In short, you may be able to leverage this presidential history into a minor fundraiser or friend-raiser, but don't count on it for turning around a town that needs jobs, more grocery stores, better schools, cleaner streets, and a better reputation.

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