Elsewhere in the news, seemingly too far away to touch anything in Saline in anyway — the largest museum in Latin America was completely gutted by fire this past Sunday. By almost every conceivable metric, the magnitude of loss was catostrophic. [1]
Two months ago, the Bob-Lo Island amusement park steamer Ste Claire was engulfed by flames in Detroit. Much, much closer to home. Also of a much, much different historical significance. [2,3]
It wouldn’t be hard to narrow the field of view further still, bringing the focus on loss in Washtenaw County and the intimate loss of things remembered in family homes similarly consumed. Yet even at that proximity, once the preservation of human lives has been assured, it’s frequently difficult to find the take-away. Is it a renewed call for attention to prevention? A praise to God for insurance coverage — or call for next steps via some new Go Fund Me page? [4]
Maybe nothing more than Spectacular! photographs for a giddy shutterbug’s portfolio?
Fire isn’t the only threat, of course. The Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site, for example, is today not the preserved location of the place where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865. Less than thirty years later while in use by the US military after conversion for use as storage and office space, a miscalculation during a construction project caused all three floors to collapse into the basement. [5,6]
Thankfully, the chair in which President Lincoln had been sitting that last night when John Wilkes Booth came upon him was not among the rubble. In fact, had never returned to Ford’s Theatre after having been first taken out. Rather, it’s on display not far from Saline, at The Henry Ford. During a 1984 assignment on site, justification was made for this to D² Enterprises by one of the museum docents: “You wouldn’t want everything in one place anyway. There’s a lot of wood in Ford’s Theatre. What if there was a fire?” [7,8]
Dedicated conservationists are probably better served not to click on the link below with its description of how the chair came to the state of condition in which it is seen today.
In any case still better than the first wristwatch worn on the surface of the moon — by astronaut Buzz Aldrin, not Neil Armstrong. Official word has it that this Omega Speedmaster “was lost in transit in or about 1971 whilst en route to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum ….” Don’t expect to ever see that timekeeper. [9,10]
Locally, the water tower, out buildings, and original North Ann Arbor Street facing of the Saline railroad station are gone forever. Weber-Blaess one-room school house is actually a relatively new transplant to the city. All but the last sixteen years of its 151-year history are actually rooted some seven miles away, in Lodi Township — where it had been converted to a building used to humbly store farm equipment. [11,12]
On a much smaller scale, nature took another chip away from the original Rentschler farmhouse about a year-and-a-half ago. That’s when the century-old belfry was destroyed. This past June, it was replaced with a finely crafted reproduction. [13]
Trivia buffs and those who seriously study the craft will recall that Saline was home and base of operations for famed puppeteer Meredith Bixby. A prime East Michigan Avenue location downtown was preferred to considered alternatives such as the Detroit Institute of Arts to house a permanent exhibit of selected marionettes, stages, and related properties, opened in 1998. It closed due to lack of financing a decade later, but isolated pieces of it can still be seen in the lobby of City Hall and the District Library. [14,15,16,17,18]
Both important repositories of history in their own rights. This is where one might start in search for the dwindling few remaining physical copies of the Saline Reporter and high school yearbook editions in complete sets.
Viewed from this perspective, Paço de São Cristóvão in Rio de Janeiro doesn’t seem that far away after all. And historic artifacts are subject to loss in myriad ways far less dramatic, and thus headline-making, than some spectacular inferno. Opportunities may not “End Friday!” but they will surely end.
Too often, when least expected. What should be done about that in the meantime? By whom? How urgently?
References
- “Brazil museum fire: ‘incalculable’ loss as 200-year-old Rio institution gutted” Dom Phillips (September 3, 2018) The Guardian.
- “Boblo boat SS Ste. Claire catches fire at Detroit marina” DeAsia Paige (July 6, 2018) Detroit Free Press.
- “Postcards: Bob-Lo Island boat Ste Claire (10-pack)” Amazon.
- “Family displaced after fire damages Pittsfield Township home” Nathan Clark (July 27, 2018) Ann Arbor News.
- “Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site” National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior.
- “Ford’s Theatre — a Cursed, Damned Past” Ovation (April 13, 2015) YouTube.
- “How Abraham Lincoln’s assassination chair ended up in Michigan” Fritz Klug (April 14, 2015) mLive.
- “Rocking Chair Used by Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre the Night of His Assassination, April 14, 1865” The Henry Ford.
- “Apollo Lunar Surface Journal: Omega Speedmaster Professional Chronographs” Lee Bailham and Eric M Jones (April 8, 2017) National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (home page).
- “Michigan History: Saline Depot” Michigan State University.
- “Weber Blaess” Saline Area Historical Society.
- “Fifteen Months Ago, The Rentschler Farmhouse Bell Went Silent With A Deafening Bang; Today It Properly Rings Again” Dell Deaton (June 29, 2018) Saline Journal.
- “Meredith Bixby” Grace Shackman (Summer 1998) Community Observer.
- Detroit Institute of Arts (home page).
- “Famed puppeteer’s legacy focus of city effort” Amalie C Nash (November 20, 1996) The Saline Reporter.
- “Bixby Marionettes Trust” Saline.
- Saline District Library (home page).
