Some folks are shaking their head at the thought of spending some $175,000 to rebuild a 127-year-old stone house that is collapsing from age. Hillsboro Museums plans to do just that with the acquisition last week of the 1879 Heinrich F. Bartel House. The dilapidated structure was donated to the city by Glen and Suzie Kliewer.
It's hard to explain to the practical-minded why we should be grateful to the Kliewers for their generous act, and why it's worth that kind of money to move and rebuild such an aged relic. But when history disappears, it is lost forever and a piece of us goes with it.
To be able to touch and feel and be enveloped by a tangible link to our forebears is to better understand our own place in the endless flow of time. If we're lucky, it prompts us to treasure it. -DR
