Those who forget history. . .

are condemned to repeat it.
The same may well apply to those who allow physical history, historic structures, to be lost. 
Sure, I know, you can't save everything, every cottage around a lake, every crumbling brownstone, every sagging barn.
But, you can save some things that really deserve to be saved. 
On Walnut Street in Hope, near where I live, an intrepid band of preservationist applied for grants and cobbled money together to restored The Long House, one of the Moravian buildings in our historic village. 
Since The Long House was built in five sections, each section is in a slightly different design, even with different roofs. But it works. 
The shop at the south end is now open selling antique and gifts. It's a beautiful space on three levels with huge front windows and a massive stone fireplace. 
The other spaces are pretty much ready to go and residents are dying to see what will go into them. The uses must be commercial. We kind of hope for something that isn't an antique store since there are several in town. . .
A larger victory, or partial victory, was the defeat of a Bloomberg-era plan to turn The New York Public Library. The Library. The 42nd Street Library on Bryant Park. The Lion Library. The Ultimate Research Library. Into a circulating library. Seriously. A bunch of architects and architectural historians fought the plan with their words and their intellect. And they won. Maybe. There are still questions to be answered. And a lot of books to be brought back from New Jersey.
Much sadder is the fate of The Big Scary Building at Greystone. Officially known as the Kirkbride building, but generally known by its less flattering nickname, the building is slated for demolition by the state in spite of many proposals for its use. 
Big is the operative word. Once the largest poured concrete building in the world, until the Pentagon was constructed, its shear size limits the possible uses of the old hospital. Possibly parts of it could be taken down, leaving the central portion for some use. Maybe filming horror movies. It is truly a scary building. 
But it may be too late. The state has probably succeeded in demolishing the building through neglect, one of its favorite methods. 
Those who allow history to deteriorate . . .