From 1950-70 about 1/2 of all the finest movie palaces in the USA were destroyed because "people don't want to look at all that old stuff anymore".

Historic preservation didn't start being really popular until the 1970s... so we have to look at earlier demolitions [[such as the gloriously ornate NYC Pennsylvania Station in 1963) with a grain of salt. There just wasn't an interest in saving old buildings back then.

To give you an idea about how ambivalent people felt about historic demolitions... check out this video of the 1963 demolition of the 1929 built San Francisco Fox Theate. It is considered the greatest loss of any historic American theatre. [[Note: first 2 minutes talks about the theatre organ chambers, followed by the "demo celebration")....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8o90jvKRec