| This study focuses on a cultural phenomenon that is driven by the demolition of Major League Baseball stadiums, ballparks, and fields. Prompted by their inherent role in the evolution of the sport and the inadequacies of the existing historic preservation framework, this study examines how American society preserves this utilitarian form, after their demolition, through observations, data collection, and analysis. In doing so, this study exposes that Major League Baseball stadiums, ballparks, and fields are preserved through the use of nine overlapping preservation methods, which memorialize five significant features. However, though these preservation methods do not prevent Major League Baseball stadiums from being demolished, they do illustrate how our society alternatively preserves historically and culturally significant resources when the existing historic preservation framework is rendered incompatible. |
