PAL Presents: To Maintain the Status Quo: Historic Preservation, White Flight, and the Urban Crisis

Join us for this Webinar event - Wednesday, October 2oth

PhD candidate Brian Whetstone traces the role of historic preservation in combatting "white flight," the movement of white urbanites out of cities and into exclusive, affluent suburbs from the 1950s to the 1970s. A staple of the broader "urban crisis" during this period, white flight vexed policymakers and city officials and remains a fixture of modern U.S. urban historical scholarship. Yet few have examined the white residents who remained in urban residential neighborhoods. Drawing from his research based in Springfield, Massachusetts, Whetstone examines how preservationists aligned their movement with the politics of suburban zoning to "maintain the status quo." For preservationists, maintaining the "status quo" entailed reinforcing racial boundaries at a tumultuous moment when Black urban migration and white flight threatened to erode traditional barriers between segregated urban neighborhoods. Through the creation of historic districts, preservationists successfully prevented the construction of higher-density apartments or multifamily affordable housing, pointing to the "historic significance" of their neighborhoods as affluent, low-density, suburban-style spaces to justify these exclusionary actions. Through these initiatives, preservationists contributed to the re-segregation of urban neighborhoods and stark inequities of the postwar city. Ultimately, Whetstone uncovers the roots of contemporary NIMBY-ism and offers alternative paths forward to create a more inclusive and equitable preservation movement.

Meet Brian

Brian Whetstone is a Ph.D. candidate whose research focuses on the intersection between historic preservation, real estate, and the urban crisis of the 1960s and 1970s. His dissertation project examines preservation organizations in nearby Springfield, Massachusetts, and throughout the state of Massachusetts to explore how preservationists prioritized private property ownership as a strategy to respond to perceived rises in urban crime, white flight, the twentieth century Black freedom struggle, and the urban rental housing crisis. Brian also holds a certificate in public history with a concentration in historic preservation. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Brian graduated with a BA in History from Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska in 2018. In addition to his dissertation, Brian is currently working alongside Dr. Marla Miller to update and expand a National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Foundation in Hadley, Massachusetts. Brian currently serves as co-chair of the National Council on Public History's New Professional and Student Committee.