“Game Changer” for PA state-owned historic sites? How other states are coping

Jim Garrison, of Frens and Frens Architects, alerted me today to a new article about the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission sites that will be closed to the public starting tomorrow.  Here is the article (click through) from the Central Pennsylvania News.

http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1259366110251550.xml&coll=1

In this article PHMC Executive Director Barbara Franko describes the massive budget fall off for her agency and the fundamental change in commitment to keeping the historic sits open to the public as “game changing.”  I agree.

Other states are facing this challenge as well. 

The Ohio State Legislature sought a study in late 2007  by their Legislative Study Commission to identify incentives for local organizations to undertake management of 20 of the 60 state-owned historic sites. In Ohio, the Ohio Historical Society is the state agency charged with maintaining 60 historic sites.  

This study, in my opinion was flawed because it did not offer realistic options for subsidies to local organizations who would take on the maintenance and management of historic sites.  The incentives offered did not include actual ownership of the site, nor a yearly cash grant for maintenance. You can read the entire study and the background information by clicking here. http://www.ohiohistory.org/sn/113007.html . 

Please read the Perspective piece by the Executive Director of the Ohio Historical Society (top of list) for an interesting review of the outcome of the Legislative Study Commission’s research.

Georgia has also begun to ask local organizations to take on the maintenance of state-owned historic sites. Earlier this year I was approached for advice about the Lapham-Patterson House, owned by the State of Georgia Department of Natural Resources, in Thomasville Ga. The local historical society and preservation organization had been approached by state government to take on the management of the Lapham-Patterson House, a beautiful Victorian era site.  Currently this site is closed to the public. http://www.gastateparks.org/info/lapham/

There are other states that have made similar efforts to try to find local nonprofit organizations to manage state-owned sites, including California.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation has a co-stewardship arrangement with the California Department of Natural Resources for the management of the Cooper Molera Adobe in Monterey CA. This site, one of the two properties owned by the National Trust in Monterey CA is nearby to Casa Amesti, one of the case studies in my book New Solutions for House Museums.  This blog post from the National Trust explains how the closing of the Cooper Molera Adobe site, is one example of how California is coping with record budget shortfalls that affect all Californians, and especially its historic sites.    http://historicsites.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/challenges-at-the-cooper-molera-adobe-continue/

Illinois decided to close half of its historic sites in late 2008. http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-11-28-illinois-historic-sites-closing_N.htm#.

The Governor, Pat Quinn, has since rescinded this effort to close state-owned historic sites, because it has been so unpopular. 

This article about the implications of reopening a state-owned historic site–the famous Frank Lloyd Wright designed Dana Thomas House in Springfield Illinois, is telling. Basically the state shut the door, turned down the heat, and covered all the Wright designed furniture with sheets. http://www.sj-r.com/news/x718267773/Quinn-re-opens-Dana-Thomas-House. It was reopened in April 2009. The Dana Thomas House brings 40,000 visitors to Springfield.

If you have information about other state efforts to close historic sites, please bring them to my attention.

 

More state owned sites in PA to be shuttered

The Philadelphia Inquirer story today about further cuts to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is just more bad news for state-owned historic sites.  http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20091117_More_layoffs_for_Pa__state_workers.html

Not that any state-owned historic site is immune, but it seems that so many are currently vulnerable.  I have been alerted over the last year about efforts in California, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia and other states that have been forced to make cuts in the last year.  Some closures were rescinded because of public outcry as in the case in Illinois and California. Many states seem to be using the model in one chapter of my book New Solutions for House Museums: Ensuring the Long Term Preservation of Americas Historic Houses, pioneered in Canada at the Heritage Branch in Victoria British Columbia.

Mothballing historic sites, as is being suggested for some owned by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is a poor option because one assumes that the collections will be moved to climate controlled storage. The need to provide security, heat and insurance on these properties is never-ending, whether a local “friends group” steps in or not. This is a sad state of affairs.

Historic Hudson Valley site in limbo

 

In today’s New York Times, there is an article on the first page of the Arts section about Montgomery Place the Hudson River home sold to Historic Hudson Valley in the mid 1980s.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/arts/design/17historic.html?ref=arts

Reporters from the Times were able to get access to recent board minutes which as the reporters tell it, show active conversations at meetings over the last six months about possible sale or subdivision of the property. Montgomery Place has a superb landscape by AJ Davis, setting, and historic house. All of this is troubling, no matter what the outcome.  Waddell Stillman, President of HHV, is quoted as saying that the Board should never have acquired the site as they did not have the funds to buy, maintain or restore the property. Richard Jenrette, the financer who owns several nearby historic properties, asked that HHV donate the property and his group would form a “friends of” group to preserve the property, but no response has been noted.

There are many other sites that are struggling, like HHV around the county.  Some were profiled in my book New Solutions for House Museums, but others have emerged more recently. Please see the tags on blog posts over the last year and a half if you wish to learn more.

Get to know: Ned Hector

Ned Hector is a Revolutionary War hero, a free black man, who was a teamster and noted for his courage during the retreat from the Battle of Brandywine, where he refused to give up his horses, wagon and the armaments he was carrying.

Noah Lewis of Upper Darby, PA brings Edward “Ned” Hector to life as a costumed educator at presentations for children and adults alike at schools, clubs and historic sites. We were introduced to Noah by Judy Anastasi, President of the Norwood Historical Society in Delaware County, as an exemplary historian and teacher, as we continue our research for the Delaware County Public History Feasibility Study and Implementation Plan.

Noah dresses in costume of the Third Pennsylvania Artillery Company to bring his message—his passion—about the role of African-Americans in the Colonial fight for freedom during the Revolutionary War. Noah says he is an unlikely person to serve as a Revolutionary War costumed interpreter given his background, but he is a convincing and meticulous researcher about his character, Ned.

Noah uses both first person and third person interpretation throughout his presentations, which allows him, as Ned Hector, to explore universal themes about liberty, courage and responsibility. His teaching has been lauded throughout the region and he returns year after year to certain elementary and middle schools as teachers continue to invite him to bring Revolutionary War lessons to life.

You should get to know more about Ned Hector and Noah Lewis. View the web site at www.nedhector.com for more information.

Thank you New Jersey Voters! Public Question #1 passes!

The Keep it Green Coalition, of which two clients Preservation New Jersey and the Pinelands Preservation Alliance are part, are celebrating a victory at the polls this week. Public Question #1 passed 52 to 48 percent. This bond question provides funding for two more years for open space preservation as well as $12 million in bricks and mortar funding for the New Jersey Historic Trust to give away to worthy historic preservation projects statewide. Congratulations to Preservation New Jersey and Ron Emrich for his hard work to get this done!   For more information check the Preservation New Jersey web site and blog.  www.preservationnj.org,.

Pinelands Heritage Forum next Saturday November 14 in Hammonton NJ

The Pinelands Preservation Alliance is hosting it second Heritage Forum on Saturday November 14 at the Eagle Theater in Hammonton NJ to bring together preservation constituents for networking, learning about new projects, and identifying key agenda items for the future.

If you are working in heritage or preservation in your community, we invite you to attend.  More information, including the agenda is available on the Pinelands Preservation Alliance web site, or by clicking here.

http://www.pinelandsalliance.org/history/pinelandshistory/pinelandsheritagepartnership/

This program is free and starts at 9AM next Saturday. Please contact me for further information. Hope to see you there!

New Jersey: Vote YES on Public Question #1-funding for NJHT

Two New Jersey clients–Preservation New Jersey and the Pinelands Preservation Alliance– have been working hard for months as part of the Keep it Green Coalition to push for passage of Public Question #1 on Tuesday, Election Day November 3.

Information about this important bond issue that would fund for two years the New Jersey Historic Trust is below. If you are a New Jersey voter, please continue your support for historic preservation funding by voting YES on Tuesday. The information below is from Preservation New Jersey’s blog, with click throughs for more information.

VOTE on Tuesday, November 3rd for preservation of New Jersey Heritage

It’s a long title – Green Acres, Water Supply and Flood Plain Protection, and Farmland and Historic Preservation Act of 2009 – but worth voting for!  On Tues., Nov 3, once again voters will be going to the polls to re-affirm your support and commitment to historic preservation grants, open space acquisition and farmland protection by approving a $400 million bond measure. And once again, the only choice is between a short-term solution and no solution.

Preservation New Jersey supports a stable, long-term funding mechanism for historic preservation and open space. However, PNJ recognizes the critical the need for a short-term funding solution until such time as a permanent source is identified, and therefore supports Question #1.  Read more about the ballot question here and here.

Please vote YES.

Richard Moe talks about New Themes, New Tactics for Historic Sites

Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Places writes in his monthly President’s Note in the November/December 2009 issue of Preservation magazine, about the work being undertaken now by the Trust called Historic Sites Task Force. According to Moe, this is an organization-wide effort chaired by a trustee, to identify lessons learned from several studies undertaken in the last year on Trust-owned historic sites to assess financial sustainability and relevance.

The Trust, as the owner of 29 historic sites across the country, is probably in the best position to lead by example and teach the nation’s historic sites about the necessity for organizational and financial sustainability.  By using their own properties as field labs for new ideas, and widely publishing their results, the Trust could make the case that not every historic house museum should remain so.  

This was one of the very promising ideas that Jim Vaughn, Vice President for Stewardship of Historic Properties at the Trust, brought up during the April 2007 Kykuit conference. This conference,  held at the NTHP historic site Kykuit in Tarrytown (the former Rockefeller estate) brought together 30 invited leaders in the historic site field nationwide to discuss the future of house museums. Coincidently, the conference occurred the week my book New Solutions for House Museums: Ensuring the Long Term Preservation of America’s Historic Homes was published by AltaMira Press.  I was invited to speak at the Kykuit conference about my research and share the case studies of 12 historic sites that made a transition to a new use or user to ensure the historic site was maintained for the long-term, even if it was no longer used a historic house museum. 

Moe’s article this month says that ”special tasks forces have been examining the challenges and facing  ”Chesterwood, Lyndhurst and Woodlawn … and already helped all three sites to take steps toward greater sustainability.”

While the article does not give any hint what the “new strategic approaches” might be for the Trust-owned properties, I hope that they will be pioneers of some “new solutions” with their properties.  Moe notes that the “alarming declines in visitation and subsequent drops in income at historic destinations coast to coast,  is being fueled by changing travel habits and economic conditions.”  

The Trust is trying to “reinvent” some of its sites with the support of local volunteers and staff.  This is an excellent step. If the Trust is not afraid to try some “new solutions” for its own sites, then perhaps struggling historic sites around the country may follow suit. 

I am anxiously waiting to hear more about the work of the Trust’s Historic Sites Task Force.  I hope it could be the sea change we need to create a new future for the preservation of so many struggling historic sites across America.

 

Wall Street Journal article about the decline of school field trips

Susie Wilkening of Reach Advisors Museum Audience Insight has a wonderful blog that discusses much of her audience research on all types of museums including historic sites.

Today she posted an article about a Wall Street Journal article in today’s paper about the decline in school field trips.  Here is the link to the WSJ article. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703574604574499283752291324.html?mod=article-outset-box#articleTabs%3Darticle

Susie argues that this trend is chilling to museums and by extension to historic sites, because it further limits young people’s exposure to real, hands on history. I agree. 

The work we are doing right now for the Delaware County (PA) Planning Department on the Public History Feasibility Study and Implementation Plan is confronting this issue as well. We heard from virtually all of the historic sites we interviewed, that school tour visits are down.

Historic site administrators in Delaware County (PA) tell us they believe there are a variety of reasons for the decline in school tours: lack of money for bus transportation for field trips,  the emphasis on testing which makes every instructional hour in the class room essential and field trips less important and finally the inability to make connections to local educators who see the value in a field trip to a historic site. All of these ideas seem to make sense, and some are discussed in the WSJ article.

However, I believe that if historic sites would provide appropriate plans and  engaging school tours and activities that meet the Pennsylvania educational standards for history education for specific grades,  this would go a long way to help make the case for school tours to individual historic sites. I plan to write more about this issue in the coming months as we get further into our research. Until then, please send me your comments.

Introduction to Commercial District Revitalization talk tomorrow in Philly

For the Philadelphia Commerce Department, I am conducting a half day long presentation called “Introduction to Downtown Revitalization” tomorrow October 27th from 1:30 to 5PM .  This free training workshop is designed for the many Community Development Corporations, chambers of commerce or merchants associations that receive some kind of city funding for facade improvements or other commercial corridor work throughout the city.  A representative from the Local Initiatives Support Corporation will be presenting half an hour about Clean and Safe efforts in urban neighborhoods. There is a module on each of the four typical Main Street committees (plus Clean and Safe) and an overview of the work of commercial corridor organizations to improve these vital neighborhoods shopping districts for residents and visitor alike.

The agenda is below.

 

Philadelphia Commerce Department

Main Street 101

An introduction to commercial district revitalization

October 27, 2009

 

1:30     Welcome and introductions—Jim Flaherty, Philadelphia Commerce Department, Andy Friscoff, Philadelphia Commerce Department

1:35     Participant introductions

1:40     Introduction to Main Street—Donna Ann Harris, Heritage Consulting Inc.

Introduce the 5 points, 8 principles, role of board/committees/staff, overview of the work of each committee

2:20     Clean and safe committee –Mona Mangat or Julia Ryan, Local Initiative Support Corporation–what does this committee do? who should be on committee, typical first year projects

2:50     Organization committee—Donna Ann Harris–what does this committee do? who should be on committee, typical first year projects

3:20     Economic restructuring committee- -what does this committee do? who should be on committee, typical first year projects

3:45     Design committee—Donna Ann Harris–what does this committee do? who should be on committee, typical first year projects

4:05     Promotion committee –Donna Ann Harris–what does this committee do, who should be on committee, typical first year projects

4:30     Tying it all together for a revitalized commercial corridor—Donna Ann Harris and Jim Flaherty

4:45     Questions and answers

If you are interested in seeing the handouts, please contact me directly.