“…if the history you know is given to you by someone with no clue of what human nature is really capable of achieving, question it and you may discover a secret that has been kept from you about a success that has always been possible.”
That’s a line from Building Saugerties that falls about halfway between the story of the building and the epiphany drawn from this case history of a forgotten startup approach, on the grandest scale, in the earliest beginnings of America’s Industrial Revolution, that is a perfect reason to repeat history.
The author has been dwelling on this mystery for a quarter century and this inspirational narrative is the result of finally having available enough documentary information to make sense of a hundred years of obvious historical deficiencies.
This is the story of one man, Henry Barclay, and the plan he executed to create a model village based on an idea that is recounted in this book as the most holistic economic development approach ever accomplished.
It answers one fundamental question: How did the events of two years of one middle-age man’s development spree become an economy that maintained a village of thousands for nearly a century?
Oddly, this question has never been considered prior to this study.
This book takes the opportunity to analyze something that actually happened during the decade of 1826 to 1836 that caused physical, cultural and societal benefits that are still echoing nearly two centuries later; and ask the question: Why don’t we do things this way?
The reason for reading this book is to make the answer your own personal catharsis. Are you ready to believe that good intentions have power?
The author, Michael Sullivan Smith, has a background in innovation through his patents, operation of technology and service businesses and his approach to historic preservation. Building Saugerties is a component of a larger awareness project he has undertaken covering the historical environment of a site specific fine art project he continues to work on.
That’s a line from Building Saugerties that falls about halfway between the story of the building and the epiphany drawn from this case history of a forgotten startup approach, on the grandest scale, in the earliest beginnings of America’s Industrial Revolution, that is a perfect reason to repeat history.
The author has been dwelling on this mystery for a quarter century and this inspirational narrative is the result of finally having available enough documentary information to make sense of a hundred years of obvious historical deficiencies.
This is the story of one man, Henry Barclay, and the plan he executed to create a model village based on an idea that is recounted in this book as the most holistic economic development approach ever accomplished.
It answers one fundamental question: How did the events of two years of one middle-age man’s development spree become an economy that maintained a village of thousands for nearly a century?
Oddly, this question has never been considered prior to this study.
This book takes the opportunity to analyze something that actually happened during the decade of 1826 to 1836 that caused physical, cultural and societal benefits that are still echoing nearly two centuries later; and ask the question: Why don’t we do things this way?
The reason for reading this book is to make the answer your own personal catharsis. Are you ready to believe that good intentions have power?
The author, Michael Sullivan Smith, has a background in innovation through his patents, operation of technology and service businesses and his approach to historic preservation. Building Saugerties is a component of a larger awareness project he has undertaken covering the historical environment of a site specific fine art project he continues to work on.
