Is historic preservation really smart growth? A critical examination of historically automobile-oriented suburbs such as Silver Spring, Maryland

Abstract

Many in the preservation community argue that Historic Preservation is Smart Growth, but this argument does not take into account all types of historic resources, especially those that were developed in response to the automobile. Elements of these automobile-oriented developments of the 1920s-1940s in America do not always correspond as well with the principles of the Smart Growth movement as those of the more traditional historic communities do. This paper examines the ten smart growth principles both in relation to historic preservation in general, as well as to historic resources that were developed with the automobile in mind. Silver Spring, Maryland is used as a case study; the town represents a historic resource type that was automobile-oriented yet had some traditional development design features. Communities that are of this historic resource type, such as Silver Spring, have great potential for integrating the historic resources into successful Smart Growth style developments.