Editor,
I am lucky enough to say that throughout my lifetime (all 39 years of it) I have been able to travel somewhat extensively. I have been to England, Scotland, Wales, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Canada, Mexico and throughout almost every corner of the U.S. I got the travel bug early at age 10 on a trip to the U.K. I’m an artist and a child of a former history/social studies teacher, so perhaps I was predestined for this viewpoint, but I have always found the history and culture one experiences while traveling to be amazing.
I’ve also found since that first trip abroad that it’s nice to come home and view your own town through a different lens. This really came into perspective for me after a trip to France. I see the Noblesville Presbyterian Church as our Notre Dame cathedral. I see the Sheriff’s Residence on the square as our Bastille. And I see our beautiful farms surrounding town as our French Chateaus.
Unfortunately farmland and farm structures are susceptible to neglect, development and demolition. The value of the land often outweighs the value of its agricultural purpose. Noblesville lost a beautiful barn recently. The Coverdale Farm at Riverwood Avenue and Cumberland Road had a distinctive “1889” roofed barn. That barn is gone now. Perhaps it doesn’t matter really, but it makes me sad.
I know I’m not alone – I posted a picture on Facebook recently and it makes a lot of other people sad. The barn wasn’t architecturally significant, but it was beautiful. And if I have learned one thing from my travels, it is that beauty does matter. We are worthy of local beauty. Beauty and history is not just something that exists in books or in Europe. It is all around us in our own town, but if we do not recognize, value and preserve it, then it’s soon to be gone. And then it’s too late.
Emily Compton
46060