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CNN Live Saturday
Interview With Bobbie Greene
Aired July 05, 2003 - 14:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN ANCHOR: That scene played out across the country yesterday. HGTV is marking Independence Day weekend with a new monthly series called "Restore America." Each month a show profiles restoration efforts at 12 historic sites. The money behind the project comes from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and HGTV. Bobbie Greene McCarthy is director of Save America's Treasures, at the National Trust. She is now joining us from our Washington bureau. Bobbie, thanks for coming in this holiday weekend. I appreciate it.
BOBBIE GREENE, NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION: It's a pleasure.
CALLEBS: Now tell us, it's not just restoring homes? It is kind of a misleading name to a degree, isn't it?
GREENE: Well, we are restoring projects all over the country, but the 12 that are the focus of the "Restore America" series are the homes of some very great Americans such as Mark Twain and Edith Wharton. We have the retreat that Abraham Lincoln used here in Washington, where he spent a quarter of his presidency, and we have also a fabulous Victorian greenhouse in San Francisco and Golden Gates Park, and the Liberty Theater in Astoria, Oregon. And sites of that kind, we have a lighthouse on Cape Hateras. A great variety that shows the richness of our heritage.
CALLEBS: And clearly something that goes from coast to coast. Why do you think it's so important to put not just the money behind these projects, but also to get the information out about our heritage, our history?
GREENE: The past is prologue. We learn from the past. It enriches our life, our life as a country and our life as individuals. That's why we keep scrapbooks and photo albums. And if we let go of our past, we let go of a part of ourselves and our national heritage. So these buildings represent a long history of the United States, of the many groups that make up our country. And they reflect the best of our past.
CALLEBS: Now, some of these places you have talked about are so well-known. Have they really fallen into that kind of disrepair where they need immediate attention?
GREENE: Yes. And that's something that I think is little known to the public, unfortunately, that many of the icons of our past are in jeopardy. Many of them are unknown, or we know some things about them, but we don't know some of the most interesting things about them. And that's part of what we tried to do with this series is shine a spotlight on places that people think they know well, but there are many hidden stories in them. And then to uncover places that most people have never heard of and don't understand their significance.
CALLEBS: So what do you expect will unfold in the coming months ahead? How long before we can actually look and see significant progress and come and say take a look at Ebenezer Church here in Atlanta, it has undergone a facelift and it's a marvelous historic area that really needs to be pointed out.
GREENE: That's exactly right. Martin Luther King's church, the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta is one of our sites. It's part of the Sweet Auburn (ph) community, which was the heart of the segregated Atlanta community. It's where Martin Luther King formed his ideas that became the basis of the civil rights movement that he lead. And if people want to go and understand how racial progress has been made in this country, Ebenezer Baptist Church holds very many of the secrets -- not the secrets, but the story of that history.
CALLEBS: OK, Bobbie Greene McCarthy, thanks so much for joining us from Washington today. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and we look forward to monitoring the progress.
GREENE: Thanks so much for having me.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 5, 2003 - 14:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN ANCHOR: That scene played out across the country yesterday. HGTV is marking Independence Day weekend with a new monthly series called "Restore America." Each month a show profiles restoration efforts at 12 historic sites. The money behind the project comes from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and HGTV. Bobbie Greene McCarthy is director of Save America's Treasures, at the National Trust. She is now joining us from our Washington bureau. Bobbie, thanks for coming in this holiday weekend. I appreciate it.
BOBBIE GREENE, NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION: It's a pleasure.
CALLEBS: Now tell us, it's not just restoring homes? It is kind of a misleading name to a degree, isn't it?
GREENE: Well, we are restoring projects all over the country, but the 12 that are the focus of the "Restore America" series are the homes of some very great Americans such as Mark Twain and Edith Wharton. We have the retreat that Abraham Lincoln used here in Washington, where he spent a quarter of his presidency, and we have also a fabulous Victorian greenhouse in San Francisco and Golden Gates Park, and the Liberty Theater in Astoria, Oregon. And sites of that kind, we have a lighthouse on Cape Hateras. A great variety that shows the richness of our heritage.
CALLEBS: And clearly something that goes from coast to coast. Why do you think it's so important to put not just the money behind these projects, but also to get the information out about our heritage, our history?
GREENE: The past is prologue. We learn from the past. It enriches our life, our life as a country and our life as individuals. That's why we keep scrapbooks and photo albums. And if we let go of our past, we let go of a part of ourselves and our national heritage. So these buildings represent a long history of the United States, of the many groups that make up our country. And they reflect the best of our past.
CALLEBS: Now, some of these places you have talked about are so well-known. Have they really fallen into that kind of disrepair where they need immediate attention?
GREENE: Yes. And that's something that I think is little known to the public, unfortunately, that many of the icons of our past are in jeopardy. Many of them are unknown, or we know some things about them, but we don't know some of the most interesting things about them. And that's part of what we tried to do with this series is shine a spotlight on places that people think they know well, but there are many hidden stories in them. And then to uncover places that most people have never heard of and don't understand their significance.
CALLEBS: So what do you expect will unfold in the coming months ahead? How long before we can actually look and see significant progress and come and say take a look at Ebenezer Church here in Atlanta, it has undergone a facelift and it's a marvelous historic area that really needs to be pointed out.
GREENE: That's exactly right. Martin Luther King's church, the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta is one of our sites. It's part of the Sweet Auburn (ph) community, which was the heart of the segregated Atlanta community. It's where Martin Luther King formed his ideas that became the basis of the civil rights movement that he lead. And if people want to go and understand how racial progress has been made in this country, Ebenezer Baptist Church holds very many of the secrets -- not the secrets, but the story of that history.
CALLEBS: OK, Bobbie Greene McCarthy, thanks so much for joining us from Washington today. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and we look forward to monitoring the progress.
GREENE: Thanks so much for having me.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
