Why Old Places Matter: How Historic Places Affect Our Identity and Well-Being A Book Talk and Reception with Thompson M. Mayes

This event is hosted by Preservation of Historic Winchester

With special thanks to the Friends of the Handley Library and the National Trust for Historic Preservation

Please join us for a book talk by Thompson M. Mayes, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel for the National Trust for Historic Preservation On his recent book Why Old Places Matter:How Historic Places Affect Our Identity and Well-Being

TIME:    3-4 p.m. lecture and Q&A in the Robinson Auditorium

                4-5 p.m. book signing and reception in the Benham Room

This special event is FREE and open to the public.             

Tom Mayes is Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  He is the author of many articles relating to, and has lectured widely on, preservation easements, shipwreck protection, historic house museums, accessibility, preservation public policy, and the future of historic preservation. For many years, he taught historic preservation law at the University of Maryland. A recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Rome Prize in Historic Preservation in 2013, Mr. Mayes is the author of Why Old Places Matter (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018).  Mr. Mayes received his B.A. with honors in History in 1981 and his J.D. in 1985 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.A. in writing from Johns Hopkins University.

Book blurb: Why Old Places Matter is the only book that explores the reasons that old places matter to people. Although people often feel very deeply about the old places of their lives, they don’t have the words to express why. This book brings these ideas together in evocative language and with illustrative images for a broad audience.The book reveals the fundamentally important yet under-recognized role old places play in our lives. While many people feel a deep-seated connection to old places -- from those who love old houses, to the millions of tourists who are drawn to historic cities, to the pilgrims who flock to ancient sites throughout the world -- few can articulate why. The book explores these deep attachments people have with old places –the feelings of belonging, continuity, stability, identity and memory, as well as the more traditional reasons that old places have been deemed by society to be important, such as history, national identity, and architecture.

This book will be appealing to anyone who has ever loved an old place. But more importantly, it will be a useful resource to articulate why old places are meaningful to people and their communities. This book will help people understand that the feeling many have for old places is supported by a wide variety of fields, and that the continued existence of these old places is good. It will give people the words and phrases to understand and express why old places matter.