New Solutions for House Museums: Ensuring the Long-Term Preservation of America's Historic Houses

by Donna Ann Harris

Overview

This substantially enlarged and expanded second edition of New Solutions for House Museums: Ensuring the Long-Term Preservation of America’s Historic Houses provides advice for historic site stewards that have concerns about the financial sustainability of their historic house museum and its relevance to its local audience.

Seven new case studies have been added for the second edition. The new case studies reinforce the book’s central argument that not every historic house museum, whether founded 100 years ago or last month, can be sustained long-term. Three of the new case studies are from diverse historic sites, showcasing how African American, women, and other minority-focused historic sites are pioneering new ways to commemorate their histories and interpret fascinating stories to visitors, with the end goal of creating financially sustainable historic sites that are relevant to their audience.

New interviews have been conducted with the ten existing case studies from the first edition to bring them up to date. The new edition adds two new reuse options to the eight introduced in the first edition. This chapter describes how to identify and implement a reuse decision, costs and advisors needed, and tips on decision making. There is a new chapter-long interview with Tom Mayes, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, on recent legal and ethical issues facing historic sites. Another new chapter provides advice on the essential role of the historic site’s Board of Directors as the decision maker for any reuse exploration. The second edition of New Solutions for House Museums contains a new introduction to the second edition, an updated conclusion, bibliography, and index.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538120088
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/17/2020
Series:	American Association for State and Local History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Donna Ann Harris has worked in the historic preservation field for 35 years. Since 2004, her firm Heritage Consulting Inc. has provided training, research, and consulting services for historic sites and historic commercial districts on volunteer management, fundraising, heritage tourism development, and organizational development activities.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

List of figures

Acknowledgements

Part 1 – Essential Background

1.Overview

2.Current Trends in House Museums

3.The Role of the Board of Directors in Historic House Museums

4.Legal and Ethical Issues: An Interview with Tom Mayes

5.The Decision-Making Process

6.Making the Transition

Part 2—Solutions and Case Studies

7.Ten Solutions Explained

8.Case Study: Study Houses

a.Historic New England,

9.Case Study: Caretakers

a.Caretakers at Historic Sites

10.Case Studies: Reprogram for a Mission Based Use

a.Nantucket Historical Association, The 1800 House, Nantucket Massachusetts

b.C & O Canal Trust, Canal Quarters Program, Hagerstown Maryland

c.Alice Paul Institute, Mount Laurel New Jersey

11.Case Studies: Co-Stewardship Agreements

a.Deadwood History Inc. Deadwood South Dakota

b.Emmett Till Interpretive Center, Sumner Mississippi

12.Case Study: Shared Use

a.Cooper Molera Adobe, Monterey California

13.Case Studies: Asset Transfer and Merger

a.Margaret Mitchell House and Atlanta History Center, Atlanta Georgia

b.Cliveden and Upsala Merger, Philadelphia Pennsylvania

14.Case Studies: Long- and Short-Term Leases

a.Massachusetts Historic Curatorship Program

b.Fairmount Park Conservancy, Philadelphia Pennsylvania

c.Heritage Branch, British Columbia Canada

d.Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

15.Case Studies: Sale to a Private Owner with Easements

a.Elfreth’s Alley Association, Philadelphia Pennsylvania

b.Sale of Upsala by Cliveden Inc., Philadelphia Pennsylvania

16.Case Study: Sale to a Nonprofit Stewardship Organization

a.Casa Amesti Foundation, Monterey California

17.Case Study: Donation to a Governmental Entity

a.Adel Historical Museum, Adel Iowa

Part III—Conclusion

18.Conclusions and a Call to Action

Bibliography

Index

About the author

Editorial Reviews

Selling off the property is not the only option for struggling historic house museums. In her 2007 book, Donna Harris offered alternatives for cultural organizations, sustainable strategies that honored their commitments to preserving the past. In this new edition, she updates examples to reveal the complexities of these solutions and suggests some new strategies. Moreover, the addition of seven new in-depth case studies include several diverse examples that demonstrate new means of reinvention and sustainability. New Solutions for House Museums, 2nd edition, will help current board members, staff, and the next generation of history advocates think outside the box.

Jane Becker

Donna Harris has made a tremendous contribution to the ways in which we preserve and engage with our history through her work to support and encourage the re-imagining of historic sites and house museums to sustain themselves both culturally and financially. The second edition of New Solutions for House Museums will continue this in even more impactful and dynamic ways.

Katherine Malone-France

Harris' message is prudent and pragmatic and the operating circumstances surrounding her case studies of house museums that have successfully made the transition to a new owner or a new use will be very familiar to many small museum operators...

Journal Of Museums Aotearoa

In this book, Donna Ann Harris, a preservation consultant with more than 20 years of experience, provides a critical resource for boards, staff, and volunteers at historic house museums, who need to consider whether creative alternatives to the house museum model may allow them to better realize their fundamental obligation—the preservation of the house.

The Journal Of Heritage Stewardship, University of Michigan, Winter 2009 - Michelle McClellan

Harris's book is organized in a very clear fashion....At every step, the author displays an emphatic objectivity....Harris comes well positioned to write such a book....Donna Harris has done a great service for historic house museums and the people who are passionate about them.

The Public Historian

Taking care of an old house isn’t easy, and being a responsible steward of a historic house museum is particularly challenging. In this thoughtful book, Donna Harris offers advice that can help boards and staff ask tough questions—and, if necessary, make tough decisions—to ensure a viable future for the historic resources they manage.

Richard Moe

Donna Ann Harris brings unique insights to a critical problem facing advocates of historic preservation: the proliferation of house museums, too often under-funded and under-staffed. Through penetrating analysis of actual as well as hypothetical cases, she outlines how transitions to new uses and new owners can best achieve the desired result of saving the building itself. This book should be required reading for anyone even remotely connected with running a house museum.

David G. DeLong

This publication brings together a number of workable solutions for a contemporary issue of concern....Timely, concise, practical, well researched....and written in everyday language, this is a handy management tool.

November 2008 Museums Australia Magazine

I would certainly recommend this book to my colleagues in the historic house museum community who may be facing house museum sustainability challenges, and who may be able to use the contents and insights offered in this book as a source of inspiration, and/or as a catalyst for moving their institution forward in pursuit of a successful alternative.

Terry Dickinson