On the Bright Side: Hartwick College offers history course on downtowns

On the Bright Side

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January 10, 2012

By Denise Richardson Staff Writer The Daily Star Mon Jan 16, 2012, 11:00 AM EST

About 20 students studying the history of "Main Street, USA," will have a front-row view through visits and studies of downtown Oneonta.

Associate history professor Vicki Howard is offering the course for the first time during Hartwick College's January term, an intensive four-week study period. The course will weave the past of economic development, urban renewal and other trends of the general topic with some visits to see the impact of historical and economic developments in the city, she said.

Students will visit downtown sites including the New York State Room at Huntington Memorial Library and the History Center of the Greater Oneonta Historical Society.

"We're lucky that we have these resources that students can draw on," Howard said Monday. Students also will be exposed to current issues, such as parking, when the class attends the Jan. 18 meeting of Main Street Oneonta, a downtown business group. Howard said she hopes the class will foster connections between the students and the larger community beyond the campus.

Such a positive exchange between college students and the local community is important, said Bob Brzozowski, GOHS director, Seventh Ward representative on the city's Common Council and MSO board member.

"It's great," he said. "I'm always pleased when it happens."

Brzozowski said he has asked that some of the course results be shared with the History Center.

Hartwick, a private liberal arts and sciences college, enrolls 1,500 students. The J Term is designed to give students opportunities for one-of-a-kind courses, internships, study-abroad programs and other projects. The term started Monday and ends Feb. 3.

"January courses are short and intensive, perfect for a focused topic like this," Howard said in an email. The course will consider the broader meaning of "Main Street" in American culture.

"Besides being the commercial heart of their community, these places were also a center for urban leisure and pleasure seeking, a public space where people of all ages came to engage in social activity," she said in the course description. "Downtown was also a site of demonstration and protest where people came together as citizens and sought to reshape the political, economic, and social structure of the nation."

Students will do a case study on urban renewal in Oneonta and present papers during the last week of classes, Howard said.

Traffic, congestion and parking have been issues in communities for decades, she said, and Oneonta's municipal garage and recently implemented parking strategies are examples of history meeting current issues.

By visiting downtown sites, speaking with merchants, historians and city officials, students will have opportunities to find out how decisions were made and evaluate their effectiveness, Howard said.

Howard's case study of the former Bresee's Oneonta Department Store is among required readings for the course. Enterprise and Society, a scholarly business history journal, published "The Biggest Small-Town Store in America" in 2008, and Howard said she continues working on a book about the decline of department stores.