NORWICH – They may not be considered the prettiest in some academic circles, but that doesn’t mean the historic sites of Chenango County aren’t significant, says Jessie Ravage.
Several of those significant areas – like the old Chenango Canal, the New York Susquehanna and Western railroad bed and a host of rural landscapes and structures resting along the Chenango River Valley – could be altered by New York Regional Interconnect Inc.’s 400,000-volt power line.
Ravage, a Historic Preservation Consultant from Cooperstown, has been hired by the citizens group “Stop NYRI” to compile an overview of local historic places that lie within the energy developer’s proposed route.
Stop NYRI hopes her research will add one more argument against building the power line through Upstate’s countryside.
“We know this isn’t the magic bullet that will make them pack their bags and go away,” said Stop NYRI member Chris Rossi, speaking to a crowd of roughly 60 gathered Monday at a public meeting in the Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Norwich. “But it will be one more thing they’ll have to answer to at the state and federal level.”
Ravage will be assessing the three-mile-wide corridor of NYRI’s route through Madison and Chenango counties, covering Brookfield, Hamilton, Sherburne, North Norwich, Norwich, Guilford, Bainbridge and Afton. She’s asking that local historians or anyone with any sort of historic information on the area help provide her with resources.
Expected to be completed by Jan. 1, the overview, which will define a series of “historic districts,” will be used as evidence against NYRI in a state review, and also as a “statement of significance,” meaning it will show – using photographs, historic documents and published resources – why these local areas are important, and at least eligible for listing on the National Historic Registry.
“These places go back a long way, and they were designed and built for their usefulness, not style,” said Ravage. “Those things, taken in aggregate, taken in whole, give you that sense of place. What I see driving through the valley, is that many of them still have that integrity – they’re still intact.”
Remnants of the old hop industry and travel corridors will be the focus of her studies, she said.
Just being eligible for the national registry, Ravage explained, is enough to prevent the federal government from encroaching on the sites. Stop NYRI is hoping this will curb, or stall, NYRI’s use of federal eminent domain powers to take private property along its 190-mile-route if it’s state review fails.
Ravage said there have been several instances in West were the creation of eligible districts has prevented similar type developments from ruining historic areas.
“The awareness of landscape preservation is very recent,” she explained.
A Master of Museum Studies from Oneonta State in Coopertown, Ravage has helped successfully create two historic districts in Otsego County.