History Disappearing

The New York Times reports on a sad trend: the decline of the "House Museum". Historic houses that have been preserved as museums are struggling to stay open and in some cases are having to be sold to private owners. Even major museums like Colonial Williamsburg are having to sell off some of these houses in the face of declining attendance figures and soaring operating costs.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — The old mahogany furniture is shrouded in white dust covers, and the espaliered gardens overlooking the James River have gone to seed. Colonial Williamsburg is selling Carter’s Grove, an imposing 18th-century Georgian mansion and one of the most renowned plantations in Virginia.

Colin Campbell, Williamsburg’s chairman and president, said he had tried to interest other preservation groups in the property, with no luck. And so the 400-acre riverfront residence, closed because of declining attendance and shifting priorities, will be available for private purchase at a price local agents estimate could be well over $20 million. “Perhaps in January,” Mr. Campbell said. “We don’t want to linger.”

Although it will be protected by easements to prohibit subdivision, there will be no requirement that Carter’s Grove be open to the public.

The sale by Williamsburg, the country’s biggest and most prestigious living history museum, has riveted preservationists’ attention on the plight of hundreds of other house museums across the country that have either closed or are struggling to stay open in the face of dwindling interest, diminished staff and lack of endowment dollars.

Robert E. Lee’s boyhood home in Alexandria, Va., once a “must see” in AAA guidebooks, is back in private hands, its stately magnolias and elegant federal rooms visible only by virtual tour. In Odessa, Del., six important buildings owned by Winterthur, the museum of antiques collected by Henry Francis duPont, were mothballed for several years and recently “regifted” to the family that donated them.

In an escalating debate, some preservation experts argue that the best way to save America’s most precarious houses may be to sell them to those who can afford to restore them, or at least keep them up, as private residences.

It is happening all across the country as the article goes on to describe. Many of these houses have either been shuttered or sold off already. There isn't enough money and in a lot of cases, not enough volunteers to keep the places operating any longer. Many organizations will no longer accept the gift of a historic house unless it comes with a substantial amount of trust money to maintain it. My wife and I go out of our way to visit places like this when we travel. It sounds as if there are going to be fewer and fewer of these in the future. That's sad.

Two personal favorites from New York State: Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion in Canandaigua, New York. When I look at their website, though, it appears they have discontinued some of the events that I remember like the Festival of Lights. They are still decorating the inside of the Mansion for the holidays, though. There is also the Genesee Country Village and Museum. There they have brought historic houses to the site and assembled them into sections that represent various eras in America's history. That is a great place to spend a day. We have a picture of my two oldest kids whitewashing a fence there after they were enticed into it by a boy playing Tom Sawyer.