Exploring
Your Neighborhood! Rosemary
Shaw
One of the
things that I found amazing about my students was that they knew
very little about their own neighborhoods. I know with this fast
changing world in which we live, people move, towns grow over night,
and many of the old story-tellers have stopped telling their stories.
Well,
it’s time to bring back those stories, and to let students
in on the secrets, which are hiding in their own backyards!
I began the
school year this year with an assignment for the students to research
their own homes, or to choose a local historic building or home
that interested them. I encouraged the students to talk to their
parents and neighbors to get a feel for any good stories in the
neighborhood. Next, I told them that they should be looking at the
tax assessment and building permits records. Tax and assessment
rolls are local government documents, and are usually found at the
municipal (or city or county) clerk's office where the record originated.
I know my students inundated the local clerk’s office and
the local museum with numerous calls, but everyone was kind and
helpful.
I also told
my students about a story that I had recently heard. Many years
back, in the days before TV, boys and girls would save all their
pennies, and when they got together 10, they would head down to
the local theatre to watch the movies. Most of the children’s
films back then were series and shorts about cowboys and Indians.
The children loved the action and the excitement of the Wild West,
because that was still recent history to them. All the boys wanted
to grow up and be cowboys, and all the girls wanted to grow up and
marry them.
One of the biggest
stars of the 1920’s was Tom Mix. Mix was a cowboy movie star,
a big one. He appeared in over 300 Westerns. Try to imagine the
BackStreet Boys, N’Sync, and Spongebob Squarepants all rolled
into one superhero. Tom Mix lived well and enjoyed the finer things
in life; by the early 1920s this former Texas Ranger was earning
the princely sum of $10,000 a week.
Tom and his
horse, Tony, would travel to different towns in the summer to give
children a little thrill, and to make a little extra money. One
year, Tom and his horse came to the storyteller’s hometown.
Everyone was excited, everyone was proud, and all the children in
town were there to try and see Tom Mix. However, as a joke, or out
of jealousy for a star, someone cut off Tony’s tail. Who would
have the nerve to cut TOM MIX’S HORSE’S TAIL??? It was
horrid! It made national news! Tom Mix threatened to sue, and vowed
never to come back.
That happened
in downtown Sanford, FL at the Imperial Opera House. The Imperial
opened June 15, 1910. The contractor was W.G. Hammond and it was
built for T.J. Miller and son (also the local undertakers). George
A. DeCottes was the first lessee. The building is constructed of
rusticated concrete in the Florentine Palazzo style with a flat
roof and parapet. Currently, it is falling down and being left to
rot with the windows broken out and the rain getting in.
This story represents
one of the reasons why we should investigate our neighborhoods,
and why you should know your history. When great stories happened
in your town, and you don’t know them, it’s a shame.
When beautiful old buildings are left empty and deserted, it’s
a crime.
Do you know
the stories of your neighborhood? One project that you might be
interested in is Listening to the Walls Talk. According to the site,
“The goal of this project is to teach students basic geographic
and research skills. A secondary, but possibly more important goal
of this project is to record the history of houses and neighborhoods
around the world. According to the National Historic Trust: Historic
sites have fascinating, engaging, and compelling stories to tell.
Preserving these places, listening to their stories and learning
from them are essential to our understanding of who we are. Many
houses and neighborhoods are rich with history. Before this history
is forgotten, we want to forever record it for future generations.”
This project has lesson plans, standards and encourages collaboration
between schools in different states, and even in different countries.
For more information, go to:
http://millennium.scps.k12.fl.us/walls.html
|