So often, history is shoved to the side. Old letters are thrown away, paint colors are changed, buildings are knocked down to make room the newest and prettiest. But doing this, forgetting our past, may be our biggest mistake of all. For without the past, we have no future. It takes decades, even centuries to build up the history and importance of a structure, but it takes almost no time to tear it down, losing valuable lessons along the way. Historic Preservation of buildings gives us the opportunity to look into our past, beyond the many dates and people and see tangible proof of our evolution as a society. Without that proof, we risk forgetting all that we have come from, causing us to lose sight of where we are going. It is for this reason, among numerous others, that preservation may be the largest asset to the continuing evolution of humanity.

Christina Butler, a contractor, preservationist and Professor of Historic Preservation at the College of Charleston realized the importance of old structures from an early age. At around three-years-old, she became entranced by the television show “This Old House.” She remembers watching an episode in which the contractors were restoring an old Saltbox Colonial home. Butler recalls she knew right away that she wanted to work with old buildings, but was disappointed “because in high school they pitch business, and law and the general things and maybe they’ll suggest architecture if you say you like buildings.” So she ended up embarking on a civil engineering degree. But, after having gone to Charleston on vacation she discovered, “by accident,” that The College of Charleston had a program in the exact field Butler wanted to be in -- Historic Preservation. Before long, she had transferred and began studying what she had been longing to since that very first “This Old House” episode. And, in one of the most historical cities in the United States. Charleston is often considered the most historic city in the south and every year, is visited by millions of tourists trying to get a glimpse of history. For the lucky ones who live here and who, like Butler, get to live the history, are forever in love with the Holy City. A city where no building can exceed the height of the tallest church steeple, and where the first shots of the American Civil War were fired. This city became Christina Butler’s world.

After College, Butler went on to get a Master's degree in History and became a preservationist in the city of Charleston. Many people ask her, why preservation? What makes history so important? To this she responds:

"To me what makes buildings interesting is who lived in them and why they built them the way they did and how they were meant to function. So style is beautiful, but a lot of times functionality is sacrificed for aesthetics… And you kind of see that with architecture where new buildings can be innovative and interesting, but sometimes they don’t function. Because we have forgotten to look at the traditions and what makes sense and why people did it. So I think we can continue to apply past lessons to our daily life. And I think in the past, people spent more time [thinking] before they made choices, whether it was about a building, or you know a piece of property they were going to buy, because you couldn't just Google it quickly and make a decision. And it was going to take you longer to execute something, so I think that’s a useful way of making decisions. Thinking through it. And thinking about the past helps us do that."

What people often do not realize is that history is more than just a timeline of dates and faces that we’ll never be able to remember. History tells our story. It shows us all the good and the bad of humanity and nature. Without this story, there would be no way for us to move forward. We would have no way of knowing what works and what could be a mistake. Butler reminds us that “…without physical reminders of the past whether it’s a manuscript or a building, we can't learn from our mistakes; we reinvent the wheel.”

The focus of preservation is buildings, sites and structures that have historic significance and value. But significance is a subjective term. What makes something valuable to one person, may not seem that way to another. For example, a childhood home may retain importance to the family who lived in it for 20 years, however, it holds no significance to the family that lived down the street that only passed that house as they drove to work or school. But, by respecting the traditions of other people, especially through the preservation of buildings, we can understand the value of memories. Butler stresses that “it is important to remember that buildings are worth something monetarily and culturally and that not everyone values the same things and so I think that saving buildings so we can about them and learn about other people's cultures is, to me, the most important.” Preservation teaches us empathy, understanding and tolerance. We can see something tangible that belonged to and was important to someone. That puts meaning behind all the dates and events that you are forced to memorize in high school history class. And that is exactly how Butler feels.

"Well, I think that preservation and buildings, or even landscapes are a great way to hook people into history and get them interested about the past. Because it is something tangible, it is something you can see. And a lot of folks take 'Intro to Preservation', partially because it is a humanities elective and because building are interesting. We see them everyday and we like looking at them. And so it is much easier, and everyone has a different level of interest, but I think it is much easier to get someone excited about something they can see, something that is visually interesting, as opposed to just a concept or a theory."

If you can take a concept and turn it into something real, something that humans see and use everyday, it becomes meaningful. “So for example, a slave's cabin is a useful tool in understanding a culture that we otherwise wouldn't have a record for. So preservation doesn’t have to be, just where George Washington lived, while that’s interesting. It can be inclusionary, so I think the cultural aspect is the most important,” Butler explains.

The philosophical reason behind what preservationists do explains just how important of a field it actually is. If we erase the palpable part of our history, the buildings that we have spent our lives in, we lose more than just materials and money. We lose tradition, culture, and a road map that our ancestors followed to get to where we are today and, in turn, we lose where we are going and why. So many people spend their lives only looking forward and often feeling lost. But if we remember to look at where we came from, we are guided to so much more than a building. We are guided to a home.