History, An Expendable Inconvenience

This is evident not only in our local community but as a nation as well. In our current world of profit driven endeavors the cost of preserving history is the tipping point between saving, preserving, and recording it. Yet this dilemma is not new but a continuing struggle between our past and how we view its value over progress.

History in itself is a debatable issue. Some like Napoleon said ‘History is a pack of lies agreed upon’, Jefferson ‘Truth, Probability, Possibility and Lies’ and Churchill ‘a Mystery wrapped in an Enigma enclosed in a Paradox’. It all depends on who is relating it and what they have to gain or lose in the process. History has been twisted and shaped for years by those who write it, either to cover up inconvenient truths or promote self-serving glory. A good example of this is the “Yellow Journalism of the 1890’s” and the “Fake News” currently being an issue. Let’s face it this can and does start wars!

Another thing is history can be nitpicky. What is history but a mix of truth, fiction, folklore, and fact? In most cases the truth to the matter can be found somewhere in the mix. To find it you must weigh all of the components. What is important is history is prologue (what comes before); the true value in history is what we learn from it and in that avoid repeating its bad habits. Also, all of us must get over making amends for the past as we are not responsible for it, those people are long dead and their mistakes are not our burden to bear.

Ours is the challenge to make a better future based on a very imperfect past correcting what we can and improving upon the good. Having learned from the past its lessons, history moves on, today is the history of tomorrow.

Hatboro is now faced with the very real possibility of losing even more of its earliest historic natural and structural past. Located at the South portal of Hatboro it includes not only the Historic Loller Academy, Old Mill, “Crest Brook” Walton Plantation house, the first Tan Yard site, Nathaniel Boileau home but also the Natural Wetlands and Wildlife Habitat known as the Lap tract. Of these, two should be National Historic Sites along with the Union Library. The community is fast approaching a time when it must make the decision. What price is it willing to pay to forfeit the remaining assets of the town's History?

To be totally honest this just has not happened, it has been building for over 100 years. At first it was a trickle, a building here and a building there along York Road, but as the years passed this grew to a flood of development on the undeveloped land of farms in and around Hatboro. By 1950, this had begun to change the country ambiance of Hatboro yet money was to be made and Hatboro’s history suffered. Some of this development was precipitated by many longtime residents who while sensitive to Hatboro history ignored warnings that the historic flavor of Hatboro was disappearing. Now Hatboro has just about maxed out on available land and developers are actively looking to remove the old and replace it with more contemporary construction. This being said, Hatboro think about it! Yes, History is inconvenient but never expendable. The time has come to preserve what is left!

From the Historian’s Desk of The Millbrook Society