Feasibility Criteria
The characteristics of feasibility are discussed and evaluated in the paragraphs that follow in this section.
Site Size and Configuration. In determining feasibility the size and configuration of the potential National Park site must be sufficient and appropriate to protect the resources and to accommodate public use.
The National Historic Landmark District itself covers approximately 20 acres representing 13 full city blocks and a portion of another block. Some 20 buildings in that District, most constructed between 1810 and 1855, which are significant examples of architectural types found in the commercial district of a major and prosperous New England seaport of that period. In addition to the primary institutional buildings, like the customs house and banks there are additional good examples of Federal and Greek Revival buildings with first floor shops and upper floor residences. This site, not surprisingly, has the greatest concentration of significant buildings of the era, in comparison to any part of the larger study area. In addition, the National Landmark District contains the New Bedford Whaling Museum, a centerpiece for interpreting the whaling era and other institutional uses.
The site is clearly large enough to provide widespread interpretive potential and to provide an opportunity for protection of important historic resources. Finally, the configuration of the site, typically dense urban city blocks, can easily accommodate public use. The maximum dimensions of the District about 800 feet by 1000 feet. These distances are relatively easy for pedestrians to negotiate. Furthermore, because of a fully developed urban street system, it is possible to access other parts of the study area and even the waterfront via a pedestrian bridge over a limited access highway which separates the district from the waterfront.
Access and Development. As part of this criterion of feasibility, appropriate access, vehicular and pedestrian, must be demonstrated. Additionally, the development patterns must demonstrate that a National Park might reasonably be created.
First, the potential park location is served by a well designed and traveled regional highway network. The city, in general, is served by Interstate 195, a four lane limited access highway which runs in an east-west direction less than a mile north of the waterfront district study area.
Interstate 195 connects to Interstate 95 in Providence on the west and to Cape Cod on the east. Routes 24 and 140, limited access state highways, connect to Boston and points north. The site is directly served by Route 18 (a four lane limited access highway) which runs from Interstate 195, to a ramp access directly into the city street system and the potential park site.
The park site area also has a City owned parking garage within it. Although it does not conform architecturally, it does provide 198 parking spaces for those visiting and using the surrounding areas. An additional (and newer) City owned parking garage provides parking just on the northern edge of the potential park site. It provides 1048 parking spaces and consequently is a major source of parking support immediately adjacent to the Landmark District.
At a pedestrian level, all of the city streets have sidewalks most of which already have handicapped access ramps. At the present time Route 18 which divides the National Historical Landmark District from the waterfront provides a barrier because of its layout. With improvements to Route 18, it can be concluded that the potential park site meets all of the needed access criteria.
The development pattern of the park site is that of a relatively dense urban commercial neighborhood. The National Landmark District has an unusually high number of structures that contribute to its historic character. There are some intrusions of later architecture and a few vacant parcels. Furthermore, there are several buildings which are underutilized, partially vacant or totally vacant and in need of rehabilitation.
From a development potential standpoint, the underutilized, partially vacant, totally vacant buildings and/or open land sites provide numerous opportunities for development of such facilities as a visitor center, interpretive centers, and/or program sites for a National Park.
Acquisition Costs. As is the case of communities experiencing widespread economic disinvestment, New Bedford has been experiencing a downward spiral of property values. This has occurred because rental rates have declined, because sales rates have declined, and because vacancy rates have increased. As long as there is excess supply in the broader downtown and the waterfront district (with vacancy rates estimated by some brokers to be as high as 40 percent in the downtown), there will be negative pressure on property values. Consequently, acquisition costs for an appropriate property should be reasonable, since alternative uses at least in the short term are not plentiful.
Threats to the Resource. In a general sense, all of the resources in the proposed National Park area are threatened by the declining regional economy. This economic turmoil has resulted in decreased investment and philanthropic contributions, both public and private, to historic and cultural resources within the potential park area and elsewhere as well. While no historic structures are in immediate danger of demolition, there is a widespread need for investment to reverse the decline that has been accelerating in recent years. There are two types of threats to historic resources - physical deterioration due to lack of investment and maintenance, and the loss of educational benefits to local residents and visitors due to the loss or lack of interpretive programs.
While there was a comprehensive program, led by several non-profit organizations and the city, to rehabilitate and reuse historic buildings and to enhance public facilities in the National Historic Landmark District, it has been almost twenty years since that investment occurred. Now, some of the most valued buildings which had been rehabilitated are showing the effects of deferred maintenance. Others of special historic significance, bypassed in the earlier program, are in need of substantial rehabilitation.12
Examples of properties bypassed and now in need of substantial rehabilitation include The William Maxfield building at 25 Centre Street built in 1840; 114 Front Street, a four story brick and granite commercial building built in 1831; and early rubble stone and wood industrial structures built as early as 1830 at 90 Front Street and on Rose Alley.
The Sundial Building, a Federal period commercial structure from 1820, was saved from demolition after a gas explosion and rehabilitated on the exterior by WHALE in 1977. Now owned by the Old Dartmouth Historical Society, it still needs complete interior renovation to realize its potential.
In addition, there are several properties, which, while architecturally significant, are suffering deterioration because of long term loss of commercial tenants. The historic Foster building, a former antique shop, on the southwest corner of William Street and Johnny Cake Hill and the adjacent Seth Godfrey house are but two examples of a larger pattern that has occurred in the district and elsewhere in the broader study area.
Despite intervention by the National Trust's Main Street Program in 1987 and the formation of a downtown planning and advocacy organization, Downtown New Bedford, Inc., the adverse economic factors have impeded substantial investment in and revitalization of structures in the central downtown area.
Another example of a threat to an historic resource is the National Historic Landmark Schooner ERNESTINA. Owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, ERNESTINA is under the governance of the Schooner ERNESTINA Commission. Although, in the mid-1980s, the Commonwealth spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for the repair and Coast Guard certification of the ship, it does not provide funds on an annual basis for required maintenance and basic operations. Consequently, its condition has been deteriorating. Responding to the precarious plight of the ship, in 1992 a group of 1,500 supporters, many of them Cape Verdean Americans descended from immigrants who came to the United States on ERNESTINA, mobilized in support of the ship. Acting from a strong commitment, a largely volunteer effort contracted to operate the ship for the summer of 1992.
A coalition of ERNESTINA supporters has requested an emergency allocation from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to support and repair the ship. While the request may be favorably acted upon, it will not be a long term solution to the problem of saving this nationally significant resource.
On the interpretive side, there are several non-profit organizations in New Bedford whose mission is to preserve the city's whaling era heritage through educational and interpretive programming, including the Old Dartmouth Historical Society, the New Bedford Port Society, the Rotch Jones Duff House and Garden Museum, WHALE, The New Bedford Walking Tour Guides, and the Fairhaven/New Bedford-Tosashimizu Sister City Committee. Other organizations preserve and interpret the city's rich cultural history, including, the Cape Verdean Cultural Center, the Black Heritage Festival Committee, and the New Bedford Preservation Society, and Spinner Publications.
These organizations have had a long tradition of producing quality educational and interpretive programming, but their efforts are also being threatened. The depressed local and regional economy with the accompanying decline in public and private funding support for cultural organizations has affected both staffed and volunteer operations alike. All groups are struggling under seriously limited budgets, are increasingly relying on dedicated volunteers, and are spending an inordinate amount of time on fund raising efforts, often in direct competition with each other.
One local organization recently succumbed to the pressures. The New Bedford Glass Museum, showcasing New Bedford's glass-making industry, operated in the Federal period Benjamin Rodman House in the Landmark District, until declining visitations and decreased operating support forced its demise and liquidation in 1991. The bulk of its collection is retained and protected in the Whaling Museum.
Reduced financial support has led to lower marketing budgets. The result has been declining attendance figures. For example, the New Bedford Whaling Museum's annual attendance was as high as 80,000 in the 1970s but by the early 1990s it had declined to the low 50,000s. Other facilities are experiencing similar trends with resulting stress on the cultural resources.
In summary, New Bedford has a valuable collection of historic resources and cultural programs which are inadequately protected and interpreted because of economic decline and the resultant loss of public and private financial support.
Conclusion
The study team found that a potential National Park in New Bedford would meet the test of feasibility. From a physical standpoint the potential park site is of sufficient size and configuration to accommodate public use. Furthermore, it has significant resources that can be protected and interpreted. The potential park site is also accessible from the regional highway network and from local streets. Also, there are public parking garages either in or immediately adjacent to the site that can accommodate substantial visitation. The site has a development pattern and potential that would allow for the creation of National Park facilities with reasonable land acquisition costs. Finally, the study team found the resources threatened by economic disinvestment, deferred maintenance, and the general decline in the economy of the community and the region.
