In thinking about recent articles in The Statesman concerning proposed growth and building plans for the City of Chandler and the Brownsboro School District, I ran across some wise words from Winston Churchill: “First we shape our buildings, then our buildings shape us.”

While understanding there is a chorus of needs that speak into any strategic project of a large scale, such as finances, functionality, room for growth, etc., my encouragement for civic and educational leaders is to allow Churchill’s quote to have a voice in the process of thinking about the future.

What is allowed to be placed on a plot of land has meaning far greater than the amount of potential tax dollars it can generate or the amount of students it can accommodate. Our buildings shape us. They help tell our story.

Though my memories don’t extend as far back as many of the readers of The Statesman, I still have some good ones. One of my earliest is of walking down the wood-planked front porch into Tucker’s General Store to put my quarter into the Coca-Cola refrigerated box machine, the one with the bottle opener attached to the side.

This was many years after a fire reduced the twostory downtown structure to one-story and a short time before that city block became a rundown strip of a revolving door of businesses and churches, and eventually the open field it is today.

That building shaped me and it shaped the city of Chandler because it told our story. The story it told was a story where front porches invited people to be more than just tax-paying cogs in a corporate machine, but rather a community of friends who could visit with each other in meaningful and leisurely ways.

I also remember being in Brownsboro for various school and sports related events. Though still relatively young, I am old enough to remember the old rock gymnasium that stood where the home side of the football field is now.

The crushed stone that made up the exterior of that structure, just like the rock fences that still surround the old school perimeter and Chandler elementary, is forged into the memories of those who grew up with me and the generations before us.

These structures, built by hardworking people struggling to escape the Great Depression, tell the story of a community willing to allow the visual ruggedness of a bygone era to have a place in its current landscape.

There is, of course, much more. Dot’s Café, the old Bears Den, the full service gas stations at the one flashing red light in Chandler, and one remaining gem, Copeland’s Chandler Drug. Not to mention the scores of memories of older citizens that could fill volumes with stories of community and history.

I would urge civic and educational leaders to be very intentional about preserving the meaningful symbols still in existence that Chandler and Brownsboro have become identifi ed with, such as those old rock fences.

I would also hope that any decision concerning the historic football stadium would include keeping it where it is, even if improvements need to be made.

However, I am not suggesting a return to some idealized past where everything was perfect. I know there are concerns and factors at play that I am ignorant to, given my distance and the amount of time I have lived away from the area.

In other words, I cannot be considered a “stakeholder” in community affairs, just an observer. But I have lived long enough to observe a few important things.

One of the things I have observed is that while unfortunate laws of imminent domain may require a highway to barrel through land that should have been left alone, they can’t force a community into looking like a cookie cutter version of the ones down the road.

I’ve also observed that while Wal-Marts, hotels, and slick, sterile buildings may do a lot of good for many communities, they don’t tell very interesting or unique stories.

They don’t invigorate the memories or inspire imagination in the citizens of Cities With a Heart.

Craig Nash
Ministry Associate
for Pastoral Care
Department
of Spiritual Life
Baylor University