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Just to add one more note in the Historic Landmarks category, directly related to the American Revolution:
Pennsylvania has two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the first one in the country that was neither a natural feature nor related to the indigenous peoples of the Americas. (And because it's located in a city - also the first such UNESCO World Heritage Site in the US - the city it's in was the first in the US to be named a member of the Organization of World Heritage Cities, an advocacy and promotional organization with no formal ties to UNESCO.) The other, added this year, is part of a collection of buildings in several locations (none in Massachusetts) designed by the most famous of all American architects.
Massachusetts has none.
Jerusalem isn’t a world heratige city nor is Mecca or Baghdad while Bath England and Quebec City are city so I wouldn’t put a ton of stock into that as a good argument. Seems more of a historical preservation award than a anctual historical importance one.
Just to add one more note in the Historic Landmarks category, directly related to the American Revolution:
Pennsylvania has two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the first one in the country that was neither a natural feature nor related to the indigenous peoples of the Americas. (And because it's located in a city - also the first such UNESCO World Heritage Site in the US - the city it's in was the first in the US to be named a member of the Organization of World Heritage Cities, an advocacy and promotional organization with no formal ties to UNESCO.) The other, added this year, is part of a collection of buildings in several locations (none in Massachusetts) designed by the most famous of all American architects.
Massachusetts has none.
Like everybody else in the state, I once took the yellow school bus ride to see some rock likely picked arbitrarily with 1620 engraved in it. Myles Standish, John Alden, and William Bradford supposedly stepped on it as they came ashore from the Mayflower. My rock trumps anything historic in Philly.
This whole thread is ridiculous. Both states are stuffed full of history.
Is the Boston Tea Party or Lexington being more important than the Battle of Germantown really a matter of opinion? Or the Industrial Revolution (in America) starting in Massachusetts? What historian would even dispute that?
I agree but some could find the convening of the Continental Congress(es) more important. I don't but some could have a contrary view.
Like everybody else in the state, I once took the yellow school bus ride to see some rock likely picked arbitrarily with 1620 engraved in it. Myles Standish, John Alden, and William Bradford supposedly stepped on it as they came ashore from the Mayflower. My rock trumps anything historic in Philly.
This whole thread is ridiculous. Both states are stuffed full of history.
It’s a thread because they’d kick the pants off basically any state not New York. It’s basically the only two that are comparable.
It’s a thread because they’d kick the pants off basically any state not New York. It’s basically the only two that are comparable.
Virginia likely has something to say. First permanent English settlement in North America. By far the largest and most influential of the 13 colonies. Gave us our first four presidents. Siege of Yorktown. Oldest public college in America. Primary theater of the Civil War with most important battles. If Pennsylvania gets credit for the Declaration of Independence, it would seem Virginia would get equally as much since its chief architect was a Virginia native.
Virginia likely has something to say. First permanent English settlement in North America. By far the largest and most influential of the 13 colonies. Gave us our first four presidents. Siege of Yorktown. Oldest public college in America. Primary theater of the Civil War with most important battles. If Pennsylvania gets credit for the Declaration of Independence, it would seem Virginia would get equally as much since its chief architect was a Virginia native.
Virginia's agrarian economy made it pretty insignificant on the national stage as the north industrialized. Other than some Civil War battles which kind of highlight the contrast between agrarian and industrial, Virginia stopped being significant 200 years ago. It's back to being significant now because of the DC-oriented NoVa prosperity which is Northeast Corridor. If you limit the scope to 17th century through the war of 1812, yeah.
Virginia's agrarian economy made it pretty insignificant on the national stage as the north industrialized. Other than some Civil War battles which kind of highlight the contrast between agrarian and industrial, Virginia stopped being significant 200 years ago. It's back to being significant now because of the DC-oriented NoVa prosperity which is Northeast Corridor. If you limit the scope to 17th century through the war of 1812, yeah.
What does that have to do with being "historic" though?
his·​tor·​ic | \ hi-ˈstȯr-ik , -ˈstär-\
Definition of historic
: HISTORICAL: such as
a: famous or important in history
historic battlefields
b: having great and lasting importance
a historic occasion
c: known or established in the past
historic interest rates
d: dating from or preserved from a past time or culture
historic buildings
historic artifacts
The synonyms for "historic" are "big," "consequential," "earth-shattering," "monumental," etc. If we're talking about "consequential" or "monumental" events in American history, then Virginia rivals any state.
Jerusalem isn’t a world heratige city nor is Mecca or Baghdad while Bath England and Quebec City are city so I wouldn’t put a ton of stock into that as a good argument. Seems more of a historical preservation award than a anctual historical importance one.
As I try to remind my fellow Philadelphians who point to this designation as though it's a Really Big Deal (we haven't completely shed our world-class municipal inferiority complex, though we have made great strides in reducing it), being designated a World Heritage City is significant only as a marketing and promotional tool. I doubt, for instance, that the township in Beaver County that's home to "Fallingwater" - the other World Heritage Site in Pennsylvania, part of a multi-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous buildings - will seek World Heritage City status. (Besides, it's not a city.)
The historically significant item is having a UNESCO World Heritage Site (which is the ticket that qualifies you for admission to the OHWC). That's the global equivalent of a National Historic Landmark, and the process by which sites are so named also identifies what protections local and national governments have given the site and any pressures that could threaten its survival in current form.
And not all US World Heritage Sites are National Historic Landmarks. Cahokia Mounds in Illinois, for instance, is a World Heritage Site but only a state historic site.
This essay, written before the current Administration took office, explains among other things the role the U.S. government, mainly through the National Park Service, played in the creation of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention and the committee that administers the certification program. This essay explains how the Convention works.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffD
Like everybody else in the state, I once took the yellow school bus ride to see some rock likely picked arbitrarily with 1620 engraved in it. Myles Standish, John Alden, and William Bradford supposedly stepped on it as they came ashore from the Mayflower. My rock trumps anything historic in Philly.
This whole thread is ridiculous. Both states are stuffed full of history.
True dat, that last sentence. But surely you have noticed all the contests for bragging rights that take place here on C-D. The entire board that includes this discussion is one big bragging-rights argument; I guess this discussion is here because we don't have a "State vs. State" board within the U.S. section of the forum.
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