Preserving for the people
Some months ago, visitors looking for the mayor of Madison could find her involved in an activity not listed in her job description: namely, up on a ladder stenciling a decorative gold border around a temporary conference room in the former Bayley-Ellard High School.

That she would bother to spruce up temporary quarters while the municipal building gets renovated says a lot about Mary-Anna Holden. Not every mayor of a town like Madison (population: 16,000) has a master’s degree in humanities and American architecture, taught art from elementary to high school, moved to town and instantly plunged into community service and historic preservation. Serving as mayor since 2008, Her Honor is unique.

Let’s see, you were head of Madison’s Thursday Morning Club, a venerable women’s service organization, now you’re board president of Preservation New Jersey (PNJ), working to conserve important structures statewide. You’re a vice president of the Morris County League of Municipalities, a Rotarian … the list goes on. Your friends call you a dynamo.
Well, I believe it’s important to actively work for the things you’re interested in. Everything I do is interrelated. I care a lot about this town and the people in it. I want to see Madison continue as a great place to live. Our entire downtown, all 52 buildings, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

How did you get into historic preservation?
I grew up in North Tarrytown, NY, a town not unlike Madison, but on the Hudson, where my family had lived for four generations. I come from a family who cared about the town, talked about its past. Everyone around me knew all the buildings, all the neighborhoods, knew who lived where.

Every Saturday my uncle took me to local sites of interest and told me stories. He’d say, “See that big brick house on the hill? Your great uncle Emil was a livery driver and delivered things there after World War I.” Then he’d tell me about World War I. Or he’d say, “Look, this building has its birth date right on it. It says 1899.” I was fascinated. I got hooked on history and buildings that reflected it. My thesis for my master’s degree from Manhattanville was on teaching art using local architecture.

Then in the ’60s the most awful thing happened. A big chunk of Tarrytown was simply bulldozed away. In the interest of so-called urban renewal, whole historic neighborhoods were destroyed. Families lost their businesses. All the little shops, eateries, gone. Replaced by a wasteland of huge faceless apartment blocks. People in them felt no sense of place, no connection to the town’s past. It was tragic. But it happened everywhere.

How could the town have prevented that?
By listening to the people who had lived there all their lives, instead of the people who came in and said, this is better because it’s new. By learning about the importance of rehabilitation and adaptive use instead of destruction. By recognizing the importance of keeping links to our heritage.

Read more of this interview in the current issue of New Jersey Countryside Magazine, available now at bookstores, on newsstands and by subscription. Click here to get one free bonus issue and save more than 80% on a subscription.