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CNN Saturday Morning News
Historic Places to Vacation in America
Aired April 14, 2001 - 08:39 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: So, where do you want to go for your next vacation? How about where the Sundance Kid once held up a local bank or maybe the mountains that launched the gold rush? Well, we want to tell you about a dozen distinctive destinations. We're going to show you the list. And they were picked for sense of spirit, place and character.
Peter Brink is with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Here's the list right here. And he's going to join us now to tell us how protecting the irreplaceable may help you plan a hiatus to a historic hideaway.
Hi, Peter.
PETER BRINK, NATIONAL TRUST FOR PRESERVATION: Hi, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, as we're looking at these distinctive destinations, why don't you tell me how you determined that these certain places were so unique.
BRINK: We travel all over the country and we decided to pick places that have authenticity, that would be good places to visit, wonderful architecture, downtowns with good shops and restaurants and so on, and that are close, often, to outdoor activities and other places to see.
PHILLIPS: All right, well, we brought your Web site up right here. It's www.nationaltrust.org and we sort of picked some of the unique cities that you had on here, OK? I'm going to go straight to this one. Well, here's a look at how you can go into checking out the cities. And we brought up Jacksonville, Oregon. Now, I'm a little biased because this is where my brother and his family lives, OK? So why don't we talk a little bit -- I've been there -- why don't you talk about why Jacksonville was picked and some of the unique things that you tell about this place.
BRINK: Great. Jacksonville has done a wonderful job with their downtown. They've used their historic architecture to have shops and good artists and galleries and crafts things. They have a wonderful music festival during the summer and then, of course, you're near all the mountains and the outdoor activities in Oregon.
It's also not far from Ashton, where you have the Shakespeare festival. So all in all it's a wonderful place to spend a day or two. PHILLIPS: And I noticed, too, that you have pictures you can click onto so you can actually not only read about the area, but also see pictures.
BRINK: Absolutely.
PHILLIPS: All right, here's the next one, Bonaparte, Iowa. Now here's one, we all sort of picked this because we've actually never heard of this area. Let's talk about it a little bit.
BRINK: Right. This is a tiny town of about 450 people in southeastern Iowa and about in 1986 when the farm crisis almost closed the town down, they rallied and started a Main Street program. And people bought shares in these buildings and recreated all of the businesses downtown. So if you want to see a community that really has fight and character and a sense of place, this is one.
PHILLIPS: Neat. OK, and let me go onto to next one here. Northhampton, Massachusetts. We picked this because Miles has been here, Peter, so we wanted to...
BRINK: Yes, I have, too.
PHILLIPS: OK, OK, so let's talk about it. Why is it so beautiful? I know Smith College is there. Miles was telling me.
BRINK: Yes, Smith College is there. It's on the banks of the Connecticut River. So it's a wonderful 19th century town. But what's really interesting now in addition to Smith College is that you have a real artists revival. So you have art festivals, galleries, wonderful crafts. It's a terrific place to combine history and uniqueness with contemporary artwork.
PHILLIPS: And a lot of writers came from here, right? Didn't Emily Dickinson come from here?
BRINK: Emily Dickinson lived there, Thoreau and Emerson were there for a time.
PHILLIPS: Wow.
BRINK: So it has a long literary tradition also.
PHILLIPS: OK, now what else can we find on this Web site? I'm going to go back to the main page here. And besides finding more about these areas, what else can we -- I notice you have a lot of different things you can click onto. What else is in here?
BRINK: On the whole Web site?
PHILLIPS: Yes. Interesting parts.
BRINK: Sure. Another thing we do are the list of the 11 most endangered places, so at the same time we talk about wonderful places such as these dozen, we talk about places that are really threatened. For instance, this year we have on the historic neighborhood schools and our concern that wonderful older schools that are in neighborhoods are, at times, abandoned so that people can go out into the countryside and spread over 100 acres and build a nondescript school.
So we're working with groups all over the country to help them assess how the older schools can be modernized and be wonderful facilities.
PHILLIPS: Well, it's a pretty neat effort to preserve irreplaceable, you know, areas and parts of the areas. Peter Brink with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, thanks so much for being with us this morning.
BRINK: Thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right.
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