The value of Notre Dame
Ted D. Conna
One of these days, the ultimate fate of Notre Dame des Canadiens in Worcester may be decided, not by appeals to preserve an irreplaceable landmark, but by the very unsubtle destruction wrought by those in control of large machines. At some point, the clock runs out for Notre Dame, and that day may be near, as the fate of the church is now before the Massachusetts Appeals Court. When I joined the campaign to save Notre Dame, many who had tried had already given up. So why devote three months of my life to an uphill battle for this tired old church?
Notre Dame means different things to different people. To me, its beautiful art and architecture has intrinsic cultural and historic value. To others, it evokes their family's religious or immigrant past. Others see it as a vital antidote to the homogeneous brick, glass and aluminum boxes recently built all around it – buildings no one seriously thinks anyone will fight to save when someone proposes to demolish them in 50 years.
For some, value is simply measured in dollars, and if no one, including the city and Worcester-based Hanover Insurance Group – which owns the property – wanted to spend any extra money to redevelop Notre Dame, then there was no reason to keep fighting for it. But the more creative and community-minded among us know what makes any city special, and what makes people want to visit or live there, is not the generic real estate that keeps the economy humming, but the one-of-a-kind treasures that you can't find anywhere else. Notre Dame was built to be inspirational and aspirational and has been embraced by the arts community.
Repurposing old churches is a special challenge, but throughout the world they've been converted to housing, restaurants, climbing gyms, marketplaces, civic buildings and breweries. Yes, saving Notre Dame would require some public subsidy and/or charity, but there's not a single new building in the CitySquare revitalization, nor a single historic building anywhere in downtown Worcester, that was built or redeveloped without subsidy or charity. By considering only unsubsidized private redevelopment proposals for Notre Dame, the effort was doomed from the get-go because it took us all too long to ask the right questions.
When a city fails to value and preserve its history, it gradually loses its soul as its landmark buildings are destroyed. But it's not as simple as deciding how much extra money it's worth to preserve our best architecture. Notre Dame could be the crown jewel of CitySquare and of downtown Worcester, and people would come there because it was special, adding both cultural and monetary value to everything around it. It takes vision, creativity, a long view, and a willingness to take a risk, but such risks often do pay off.
Had the powerful few who control Notre Dame's fate had more respect for the ideas and desires of the community at large, we could have had a more open, productive process, with less acrimony, and maybe even a better outcome.
Ted D. Conna is a leader of the Save Notre Dame Alliance. He is a builder, designer, and longtime activist whose work has focused on environmental, historic preservation, peace, and voting issues.
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