By Nick Perkins
Staff Reporter
Many different types of history are taught in schools across the United States, such as world history, national history and even some state history.
Local history is something that is not really taught about that much, but is equally important. “I think it’s important to know where we have been,” said John Barton, former Northwestern Oklahoma State University professor. “So, we will know better, and have a foundation for where we are going.”
“I think our local history is very, very important,” Barton said. “We tend in public schools to do a lot on international stuff and national stuff. That’s important too, but we sometimes over look things that happen right here close.”
Local history can help people understand how far towns have come since they started. It can also show how past members of the community may or may not have shown leadership and sacrifice. One thing that is sometimes overlooked is the importance of original buildings that have been in the community for a while.
For the Northwestern Oklahoma State University alumni, the older, historic buildings are a big conversation piece because they are the original buildings and can help remind them of when they were in school and what times were like back then.
“It connects to the people who built this place,” said Ken Kelsey, instructor of history and fine arts. “It’s a reminder of our own uniqueness here at Northwestern.”
The oldest building on campus is Fine Arts. The castle on the hill was the oldest building on the NWOSU campus, but it burned down in 1935. Some of these buildings get repurposed for other purposes. Such as Vinson and Shockley Hall, which used to be dorms for the students.
According to Barton, another building that was repurposed was the student center. The Student Center used to not have a ball room and it used to be a gymnasium. The name of it was Wyatt gym, and it was named after the first head of athletics at Northwestern. “If you go on the west side there is a plaque out there that tells you about the history,” Barton said. “You can look up and see part of the old gym at the top of the building.”
One of the older buildings on campus that had to be torn down was Oklahoma Hall, which was a dorm. Barton said that the building was so infested with asbestos that they could not save it and had to tear it down.
Markers are placed at the buildings around campus to give details about the history and purposes of the buildings. The markers were paid for by people donating to have the history of these buildings preserved. According to Kelsey, these markers were placed around the buildings by the preservation society on campus, which is made up of mostly teachers.
While keeping the original buildings is a way to keep traditions alive and to help with history, it also comes with a cost. Many of the building on campus have numerous problems that need to be fixed but that is one of the issues with keeping older buildings around.
“I think it is important to keep elements of historic buildings,” Kelsey said. “They give us a sense of our own past and identity.”
Another way that the preservation society has helped preserve the history here at Northwestern was to add a collage inside the Wellness Center to tell about Mr. Newby, who used to coach and was the athletic director at Northwestern, and a granite rock in front of the wellness center to show that Newby Field used to be where the Wellness Center is currently at. These along with the markers are ways that people can learn about the history of the buildings on the Northwestern campus.
Kelsey said that he understands that historic buildings need to be renovated and modernized to accommodate changing times and students or faculty with disabilities. It still important to keep the buildings instead of just tearing them down and rebuilding. Keeping the historic buildings on campus shows people that the community and school takes pride in its history. One way to help keep older buildings safe is to get them accepted into the national register of historic buildings.
According to Kelsey, if a building is accepted into the national register of historic buildings new stuff can still be added to the building. It also makes the building more official and it makes it possible to request federal funding to improve the building, as long as they follow the guidelines that are set in place by the historic preservation offices of the National Parks System.
There are people all over the state who want to keep older buildings around and make them historic buildings. Doing this is a good way to preserve the past but also to help the community grow and to help the businesses do well.
“There are a number of people all over the state who promote the idea of historic preservation,” Kelsey said. “Ranging from buildings on our campus to putting up signage to where the old route 66 used to go.”
While some people may think keeping these buildings around can be an eye sore, or inconvenient because they are not changing to keep up with modern times. although people like Kelsey, who enjoy the history of the buildings and think that historic preservation is a great thing. Even on old rundown buildings that are falling apart because no one has the funds to put into the buildings to make them nice and useable again.
“When I have been down to New Orleans, we can even see preservation by neglect,” Kelsey said. “As long as they keep that roof on and it doesn’t fall in, you can see how it has changed over time.”
With these older buildings some of the ways that shows its history might be the peeling wall paper or if it has a wood floor in it. These features can help give an idea to what the building used to look like when it was newer.
“We can even see that in a lot of Oklahoma towns,” Kelsey said. “A lot of our rural, towns out in the country side, they haven’t been swept up in a lot of economic development. Therefore, they still have a lot of those homes, business buildings or community buildings; such as schools, churches, or post offices, that are basically preserved from the past.”
According to savingplaces.org, pre-World War II buildings used to be made with higher quality materials and were built to last longer than buildings built in modern times. Some of the materials that they might have been made out of were hardwoods such as heart pine.
Keeping these older buildings around can help people understand how far we have come as a society. The older buildings can also help people imagine what everything used to be like.
“The people who went before us showed a great deal of courage and a great deal of leadership,” Barton said, “and they were looking out for you.”