Hi.  I replied on the thread about moving buildings, but I also need to
reply to the original post about reconstructing buildings in state
parks.  About every thing one can imagine has been done at Old
Washington Historic State Park in southwest Arkansas since the park was
established in 1973, and before that when it was a nascent shrine,
beginning with the "reconstruction" of the Tavern where the Texas
Revolution was planned by Sam Houston and other ne'erdowells.  Said
Tavern was originally catycorner on the block (a deliberate original
choice since it was built well after the town plat of 1824) but the
reconstruction in 1959 has the building nicely squared with the block.
Most recently, an 1840s separate kitchen was reconstructed mostly on the
same footprint id'd in our fieldwork in 1981 and 1992, but with a porch
only on one side instead of on two as we found foundation evidence for
and probably three sides based on oral history.  In another case, and
matching both threads of this discussion, and in sequence, an 1850s
house burned down, was replaced by a 1920s house, which was torn down,
under which we found the exact footprint for the 1850s house, and a
similar 1850s house was moved in from out of town onto the same site but
displaced deliberately from the original foundation.  This displacement
was for a variety of reasons, including we didn't have the funds to full
y excavate and therefore sterilize the site, but also because slight
displacement made the front portico align better with an 1850s house acr
oss the street.  I wasn't part of the decision about where to place the
replacement old house, and it was ok to save the original foundation, bu
t it was nice to witness a deliberate act to neaten up the past by makin
g front porches line up better, literal construction of the past without
messy symbolism or nothin'.  Ask me offline and I'll give you 20 years
more anecdotes on this one park, and then we can talk about others in-st
ate I know of.  Bye.
 
 
Leslie C. Stewart-Abernathy
Arkansas Archeological Survey
Arkansas Tech University
Russellville, AR