Our second look at recent stories from across the country looks at a situation in Virginia that highlights a growing national challenge for historic preservation.
Carter’s Grove is a Virginia plantation, including an extraordinary 1755 brick Georgian house. Through a gift from the Rockefeller Foundation, the house came into possession of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in 1964, although it remains furnished as it was in 1928.
Over the last few years, the Foundation has reevaluated its ownership of the estate, based on its non-period interior, the distance between Williamsburg and the site, and possibly the ongoing cost of maintenance, and has announced that it will make Carter’s Grove available for sale.
As a recent story in the New York Times revealed (click here to read excepts from that story in the Seattle Times), some lovers of historic architecture from Virginia and across the country have cried “foul” at these plans. While the estate will be protected by a historic conservation easement, there will apparently be no requirement, for instance, that the house will be open to the public. This fact, as well as the fact that the National Trust for Historic Preservation has publicly supported the sale, has many preservationists concerned about the precedent set by Carter Grove’s sale.
Click here to access the full New York Times article (NOTE: cost required). Preservation Ohio has a copy of this story, which includes a discussion of other historic museum houses which have been put up for sale, budget problems at sites like Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts and elsewhere, and more quotes concerning the nature of the precedent that will be established with the Carter’s Grove sale and the National Trust’s involvement.
Interestingly, this sale comes at a time when other house museums, even the largest, have enjoyed success at using branding to generate revenue (click here to read about Biltmore's efforts).
Ohio is certainly not immune to these issues. The large number of historic house and building museums across the state are owned by a variety of interests, including local historical societies, local preservation organizations, municipalities, and certainly the Ohio Historical Society. Over the last two years, a situation similar to Carter’s Grove has played out along Whitewoman Street in Ohio’s only fully-restored canal village, Roscoe Village in Coshocton County, where the Roscoe Village Foundation sought and obtained court permission to sell a portion of its holdings to private owners. As this Columbus Dispatch story details, the Foundation’s actions were taken in part in light of a $19 million deficit and a desire to re-focus their attention from property management to public education. The village’s Roscoe Inn was sold to the Central Ohio Technical College for use as a new college campus.
Photo: Roscoe Village - RLA42/CreativeCommonsLicense