This contribution to the understandings of a ‘place’ offers but the scantest insight into the 'enterprise' that evolved on this site and the cultural landscape that this 'place' – the C H Smith Building – was/is a cultural beacon within. It is something a great deal more than Charles Henry Smith’s and his decedents’ entrepreneurship have invested in this ‘place’.
The C H Smith Building is a place where a great deal of Tasmania’s colonial, agrarian and industrial endeavours comes together. All this is more deeply etched in the ‘placescaping’ that is evident in this precinct, and in the City of Launceston, than is currently understood.
Arguably, the unwillingness to acknowledge the spectrum of the histories attached to and invested in this ‘place’ has inhibited its evolution from one entity (life?) to another. Indeed, this unwillingness is palpable as developers and others have jostled and wrangled for their position at this somewhat extraordinary table festooned as it is with the aftermath of past eras and redundant enterprises.
What’s at risk of being lost in this ‘place’ is it’s deep histories, it’s placedness, it’s stories and the storytelling. People’s interactions enrich ‘place’ and this one deserves to have them told and reinvested over and over albeit in ever changing ways.
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| GO TO: http://www.examiner.com.au/story/212650/c-h-smith-building-still-standing/ |
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