The Making Of Place

A sense of place means different things to different people. To some, it derives from shared memories, experiences, traditions, and history—the site of a farmers market or the location where a historic event took place. Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, would be just another beach without the tie-in with the Wright Brothers, and Hannibal, Missouri, just another river town if it were not the boyhood home of Samuel Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain. To others, however, a sense of place comes from distinctive sights, smells, and sounds—the sight of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the smell of fresh-cut tobacco in eastern North Carolina, the sound of subway cars in Manhattan. A place reminds us of where we came from—and shapes who we are. These special places are what make us homesick or nostalgic when we are away from them. In any case, a sense of place is difficult to define and measure, primarily because it is so subjective.

Thanks to Urban Land Editor