by Kyle Bailey
I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect when I left my home state of West Virginia to begin a new position in Harrisburg with the Pennsylvania Downtown Center. For more than 25 years I called the southern coalfields of West Virginia home. I grew up surrounded by coal mining communities that developed quickly during the early 20th century which experienced rapid decline in population as the mining industry became more mechanized resulting in severe blight and a rapidly decaying building stock. While I always had an appreciation for our small communities and downtowns, it wasn’t until I decided to study history during college that I gained a true appreciation for local history and what makes each community, someone else’s home, so special.
I lived minutes from a coal camp called Helen, but never felt a strong attachment to it. It was never one of my communities. After making the decision to serve with a statewide historic preservation organization, I was assigned to work with the community of Helen to survey its historic district and aid in preservation efforts throughout the small town. During this process, I worked to build relationships with the residents and did what I could to educate them on the benefits of historic preservation. Throughout this process, I grew to care for Helen in a way that I never anticipated. When driving through the community, I found myself driving more slowly, watching out for pedestrians more intently, and checking on interpretive signage I helped install. When the survey was complete, I remember being anxious, not because I was afraid that I had wasted my time, but from fear that our State Historic Preservation Office wouldn’t see what I saw, or understand Helen’s story the way that I had come to understand it. They did, however, agree with me that Helen was special and, as they put it, “a significant and distinguishable entity.” I was so relieved.
As I continued to work with various communities throughout my old home state like Helen, Mount Hope, Lewisburg, or Elkins, I realized that it wasn’t where you lived that made a place feel like home, but instead, what you do there to make someone else’s home better. My life and work throughout the state of West Virginia instilled in me a sense of responsibility to encourage and guide communities towards revitalization and to help them share the stories of what makes them unique.
During the past month, I’ve visited several communities throughout Pennsylvania and try to look at each through the lens of it being my potential future hometown. Doing so makes the work we do more meaningful and encourages me to really start to understand a place and see it for how it is rather than how it might be perceived. So, whether you are committed to working in your own hometown, or someone else’s, no matter where you go, a dedication and passion for communities will always make you feel at home.