| elisabeth dubin | ||||
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THESIS:
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PRESERVATION FOR THE PEOPLE: Seventy Years of American Youth Hostels I became interested in the phenomenon of the youth hostel while traveling abroad. In Europe young people from all over the world are accustomed to lodging in “hostels”, which typically accommodate travelers in dormitory-style bedrooms with common sitting areas and kitchens for meeting and socializing. In England, Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, France, Italy, Israel and Greece I stayed in such hostels situated in buildings recycled and adapted from previous uses. I realized on my return to the U.S. that the hostel is alive and well in America, too. Like their counterparts in Europe, the majority of domestic hostels are located in historic buildings that have been used previously for other functions. My interest in these buildings was furthered after visiting hostels in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. As I traveled I noticed that the adaptation of historic buildings for this use creates an architecture all its own. Those interested in developing youth hostels are aware that their clients are not patrons of four-star hotels; hostellers are frugal, adventurous, and tolerant of unusual living spaces. Small bathrooms under stairs, innovative shower designs made to fit tight spaces, variations on the bed-loft and a more liberal view towards privacy are all acceptable and, in fact, valued. Hostels vary widely in form and quality but not in function. During the course of traveling and staying in youth hostels, I sensed the deep relationship between the hostel building itself and the traveler’s experience of an unfamiliar region. Hostelling, then, is not simply the pursuit of “cheap sleeps”; rather, it is associated with a form of travel that intimately acquaints one with the history of a location as told through its built fabric. I hypothesized that the hostel is a fitting use for certain “problem” historic buildings, e.g. obsolete prisons and school buildings that have outlived their original functions and are difficult to match with new ones. Hostel patrons are typically tolerant of a greater level of variation in service and accommodation than are general hotel patrons, so the act of remodeling a building for such a use can be more creatively accomplished. Buildings in locations somewhat off-the-beaten-path (like lighthouses, early farmsteads, or structures in national and state parks) would be under-visited as museums, yet as hostels they become popular destinations for bike tourists and car travelers. I observed that hostelling fosters a sense of community and a feeling of good will among travelers. Those who stay in hostels often do small chores like cleaning a kitchen or vacuuming a common space; those who stay for an extended period sometimes get involved in more elaborate building maintenance tasks. This volunteer or barter-based labor force might be integrated into regular upkeep of hostel buildings, but appears as yet not to be implemented on any formal level. Further, I noticed that the adaptation of various historic structures for use as hostels can be minimally damaging to the structure. This came to mind after visiting a former chapel where no partitions divided the space and dormitory beds were simply placed in rows in the main hall. In Littleton, Massachusetts, a former farmhouse and barn have been converted to a dormitory in which most hostellers sleep in the various gables of the building and the rest in simply partitioned private rooms. I have seen similar hostels in carriage houses and industrial buildings where the impact on the original structure has been minimal. Although hostel buildings vary in size and form, they are consistently compelling places. To stay in a hostel is not a neutral experience; one is rather forced to observe the structure and the particular details of the place. The study that follows is one that began years ago as a vacation and continued as a Master’s Thesis at the University of Pennsylvania. This project was made possible by the willingness of several individuals affiliated with AYH to speak to me about the topic. I offer great thanks to David Kalter, John Canon, Ta’Juanna Anderson, Eric Horowitz, Steve Haynes, and Jennifer Norris; I owe the largest debt of gratitude to Nina Janopaul whose input was essential. Thanks to Jim Garrison, Amanda Fernández, my mother and father, and all others who showed interest and helped to facilitate my work. I also thank my friends for trekking around with me to visit some of these places (hardly a joyless task for them, but the company was much appreciated). I would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Ilona English Travel Fellowship, and the time and patience of my advisor, John Milner, and reader, Samuel Y. Harris. Finally, thanks to D.C.F. Parker for inspiration. ABSTRACT: A “youth hostel” is an inexpensive, co-educational, supervised overnight lodging open to the public. Despite the moniker, hostels have accommodated travelers of any age since the inception of the movement in Germany at the turn of the twentieth century. In the early years hostel buildings were found in rural areas—they were created to allow city-bound students to spend a weekend in the natural landscape, and were invariably fashioned from unused school buildings or empty barns. When hostelling as a practice expanded from Europe to the United States in the 1930s, a national not-for-profit organization called American Youth Hostels (AYH) was formed to serve as the standard-setting and administrative center for the movement. The mission of AYH is, “…to help all, especially the young, gain a greater understanding of the world and its people through hostelling.” This thesis investigates AYH to reveal the organization’s various approaches to preservation of adapted historic buildings. The primary question posed is this: as a not-for-profit, essentially philanthropic organization charging minimal fees for accommodations, how does AYH acquire and renovate historic buildings and why does it invariably choose this option over new construction? Three case studies present distinct building typologies, all adapted to dorm-style hostels: (1) a Victorian mansion in Sacramento, (2) a former nursing home in New York City, and (3) an obsolete lighthouse on the California coast. This paper also demonstrates that AYH values historic preservation as much as it does social reform and physical education. AUTHOR'S NOTES:This thesis has been almost totally dependent on the patience and willingness of people in AYH to talk to me. I am pleased to be finishing the project, and I feel good about documenting these projects for AYH—since AYH is a non-profit full of busy and underpaid people, they’re not big on documenting themselves. Please feel free to comment if you like! Email your comments to edubin-at-excite-dot-com.
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