I checked out Historypin as a way to explore place based digital public history projects, which is something I’m quite interested in. I found an exhibit based on the historic Hawley Green neighborhood in Syracuse. The neighborhood has been the target of historic preservation projects for some time, but with little success thus far. It sits on the border of downtown (it was on the north side of the Erie Canal and, when the canal was there, downtown was on the south side of the canal) and a hospital complex. The neighborhood has experienced great economic decline in the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st. It is also considered to be the “gayborhood” of Syracuse, but there really is little evidence of that on the landscape or in the collection.
While exploring the site on my computer, the technology showed some promise. There are only 16 photographs, but they do highlight the architectural importance of the neighborhood with examples of domestic, business, and community/social structures. The main focus of the site is the architecture, not necessarily making larger historical contexts. By clicking on the individual photographs, there is a historic photograph superimposed on a current photograph of the address. You can then remove the historic photo to see only the current one. There is also a brief architectural description. The initial view of the superimposed photo over the modern one is a bit awkward and, as they may say on the Great British Baking Show, clumsy, but it is an interesting juxtaposition. After reading the article on augmented reality applications, I see the idea behind what the technology can do, but it seems to have a ways to go in making it more visually appealing.
Then I grabbed my phone and headed down to Hawley Green. Well, my hopes for promise were a bit dashed. Full confession, my phone is several years old so was part of the problem, but it was difficult to navigate the site using it. In initially searching for the site, search boxes were cut off, and if I hadn’t already loaded the specific site onto my phone prior to leaving my house, I’m not sure I would have been able to find it while outside. Also, it is Syracuse, and it is still cold. Taking my gloves on and off to navigate was a bit annoying after a not very long time. When I did get into the site, some photos included the superimposed image, while others did not. I preferred the later. At that point, I can see the current structure, and the 360 degree scrolling just seemed like a distraction. It was nice to learn a bit more about some of the specific buildings, but I’m not sure I would venture out specifically for this kind of experience again. Oh, and some of the historic photos are sideways. That should be easy to fix, I would think.
Bowlingirl214 created this collection back in 2015 stating it is a work in progress. Well, some changes have occurred in the neighborhood since then, but there doesn’t seem to have been any additions or updates to the site in the past seven years. I would imagine the time to create and maintain such a site would be significant, so I cannot blame bowlingirl, but still, it was a bit disappointing given that she stated it would be a continuing project to assist in the various revitalization efforts focused on the community. I will have to take a look at some more recent projects to see what the potential could be and how the projects have evolved in the past seven years.
