Should points named ______ (historical) be on the map if they no longer exist? example
No, we only map what exists today. You could map ruins or abandoned railways, etc.
If the school building is still there, you could map
building=school
disused:amenity=school
historical=yes
old_name=____
If there is a plate remembering the school, you should map that with
tourism=information
information=board
board_type=history
I think the name of the item is never “___ (Historical)”. The name should not contain information on the status of the item.
Is that really the case? Here in Germany I’ve seen plenty of historical field names . A disused school building might still exist anyway.
http://www.openstreetmap.org/node/357436530 looks like it’s part of the a very old large import in the US http://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/758594 .
From memory I think someone has taken the time to remove or change the “historical post offices” that got imported at the same time; maybe it would make sense to do the same with similar historical schools? I’d suggesting discussing on talk-us rather than here, as there’ll be rather more Americans present there rather than here.
It’s not just an American problem though; in the counties near me in England some armchair mappers insist on copying all names that they find on “OS OpenData” maps. Unfortunately many of these are just historical and some are purely descriptive (e.g. “Poultry Farm” probably means “there is a poultry farm here” not “this is a locality or farm called ‘Poultry Farm’”).
There’s no substitute for a proper survey…
Even where there is a valid reason to include the feature, it should never have “(historical)” in the name, as that is being used as meta-data, and should be represented by appropriate tags, not by part of the naem
You should have read my third sentence then.
If the building is gone, we do not map it anymore. As for historical field names: if the field is there, but it is no longer named as such
landuse=farmland
old_name=X
if it is still there and still named like that
landuse=farmland
historic=yes
name=X
if the field is now a residential area, I would not map it. You could apply the above to any feature.