When is something old enough to be 'historic'?
I was looking at a some information about Florida last night in preparation for a visit. One of the websites’ headlines was “Visit Historic Palm Beach”.
I have a hard time with that. Palm Beach didn’t have any settlements until the late 1880s, and it wasn’t incorporated as a town until 1911 – and that’s just barely 100 years. The problem I have is with the word ‘historic’ – one hundred years is practically new. Maybe it’s ‘colorful’ Palm beach, or ‘bucolic’ Palm Beach, but to me, the word ‘historic’ implies centuries or millennia.
For example, I can see St. Augustine as historic – (founded in the 1500s). And Athens, greece, and Rome, of course, are historic.
Where does ‘history’ begin?
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Hey, I used to live in Historic Palm Beach. :-p PM me if you’d like some insider recommendations on places to visit! Seriously. There’s a lot of amazing nature centers down there.
In Florida, Historic means anything that existed before air conditioning became common. Historic anything in the U.S. seems kind of laughable to me… In Paris, I was just living in a building that was built in the 1880s and that’s relatively new!
I like the air conditioning definition.
I have been to the area before – actually a little further south (Boca, Delray) – but almost always on business. This trip, I hope, will let me get out some and see the sights.
I’ve never been to Lake Okechobee – is it worth a drive?
Your problem is that you are confusing historic with old. The two are different. For example, something can be historic if it’s brand new and the first of its kind.
Also, historic is relative. For Florida, Palm Beach is old. It was established by Henry Flagler, who did much of the interesting things in Florida including building the railroad to the Keys. Many wealthy and famous people stayed in Palm Beach in its heyday.
Can you link to the website by any chance?
Ah. In this context, it means “explore the past (historic) Palm Beach”, for those who want to learn how Palm Beach has changed over the years, or who want to know how something in Palm Beach compared to other towns at the same time.
As to when history begins… really, any time in the past.
It’s more a question of what happened in a place, rather than age.
Something is “historic” if it was around and popular before the Public Relations department head heard of it.
Two words, Mickey & Rooney.
It kind of depends on the events associated with the place too. Promontory, Utah for instance became historic when the UP and the CP joined tracks on May 10, 1869 with the Golden Spike.
Tranquility Base became historic when Apollo 11 landed there July 20, 1969.
There is a joke about the US and the UK. In the US, 100 years is old. In the UK, 100 miles is far away.
Historian here. I was always taught that “history” is twenty years prior to the present date.
@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard That is probably a good rule of thumb, but sometimes there are events that you know are historic before you ever start them.
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