preservation in mansfield

I'm working on a scrapbook project for the bicentennial exhibit trailer on the Square [I'll be posting more about this later], and researching old newspaper articles. Tonight I was working on the Vasbinder fountain story. I was happy to see that my high school social studies teacher Dave Dalton, when he was a council member back in the 70s, helped bring the fountain back from Malabar Farm when the state no longer wanted it.
I was also surprised to come across a public letter from a local architect denigrating the fountain; "its history is not all that significant"..."in a sad state of repair"..."cost more than its worth"...etc. This same architect, who touts his internship at Colonial Williamsburg and consultation on the restoration of Oak Hill Cottage, was a major factor in scuttling the Woodland Historic District proposal two years ago, after initially encouraging us in the effort.
In 1976 he publicly opposed the nomination of the Ritter house at 181 S. Main because "Placed on the National Registry it will be reduced in value because of the restrictions placed on it and a present poorly maintained structure will be perpetuated."..."A city such as Mansfield can afford just so many "historic sites." Oak Hill is three-fourths finished, is out of money, in trouble, and no one locally can be found at this point who is excited about seeing Oak Hill finished. Oak Hill is a significant structure from several standpoints and has a national reputation. "..."We should see our national heritage preserved, make no mistake about that, but we cannot preserve examples of all American architecture here in Mansfield because much of what we preserve in such a scheme will be of mediocre quality. We have a fine example of Gothic Revival in Oak Hill so let's let someone else with a fine example of Queen Anne fulfill that part of preserving our heritage."
Basically his premise is, and I've read similar sentiments in Paul White's old columns, that Mansfield's architecture is generally a mish-mash (the same words this man used about Woodland) and mediocre, and not worthy of preservation except for singular cases like Oak Hill wherein preservation equates to meticulous restoration, and nothing less is relevant.
Thankfully over the years the less sophisticated general population have been the true preservationists in Mansfield...the people like Mike Volk, Dave Dalton, Robert Burns, and others who brought the fountain back. The people who voted down multiple library levies until they abandoned a plan to tear it down. The people who fought the cut-through of the park and displacement of the fountain in the first place.