Join author Donna Ann Harris for this Zoom webinar about the second edition of her best-selling book 'New Solutions for House Museums: Ensuring the Long-Term Preservation of America’s Historic Homes.'
Donna will set the stage for the rest of her talk by reviewing the case study about the Elfreth’s Alley Association, and its early preservation efforts to buy threatened houses, and rent them to tenants. Over 20 years, four houses were purchased. The board wrestled with the rental properties for decades but was never able to raise enough money to restore any of them, a long standing frustration. By the late 1960s the organization began to change its focus from buying homes to protect them from demolition, to restoring the Mantua Maker’s house at 124-126 Elfreth’s Alley for use as a traditional historic house museum. In the mid-1980s after nearly four decades of discussion at board meetings, the membership voted to sell three properties with façade and open space easements to private owners who had the wherewithal to restore them Donna will also share two brief case studies to highlight how other organizations have approached a change or use or user for their historic house museums.
The second edition of 'New Solutions for House Museums' was published on November 1, 2020 and is now available from Rowman and Littlefield Publishers/AASLH. The publisher is offering a 30% discount, if you are interested in purchasing the book. The discount code will be shared at the end of the presentation.
REGISTER HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/learning-from-new-solutions-for-house-museums-tickets-148010969795
About New Solutions for House Museums
Published in 2007 at the start of the Great Recession, this book focused on the generational shift then occurring at historic house museums as board members and volunteers retired while few young people were stepping forward to take their place. These landmarks were also plagued with serious deferred maintenance concerns, and very few had any endowment at all. The book asked the question, what will happen to these sites in the next ten years and what can be done to assure their continued preservation for generations to come? In 'New Solutions for House Museums' Donna Ann Harris examined possible options and provided a decision-making methodology as well as a dozen case studies of house museums that made a successful transition to new owner or user, including the Elfreth’s Alley Association.
The second edition is substantially enlarged and expanded and provides advice for historic site stewards who have concerns about the financial sustainability of their historic house museum and its relevance to its local audience.
To broaden and deepen the impact of the book for a second edition, seven new case studies were added. 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 diverse historic sites, illustrating 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 audiences.
Over the last dozen years, 'New Solutions for House Museums,' has remained a best seller for American Association for State and Local History, and has been used in scores of graduate school programs across the country that are preparing the next generation of house museum curators and historic site administrators.
About the author
Donna Ann Harris is the principal of Heritage Consulting Inc. (@heritageconsutlinginc) a Philadelphia-based Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) consulting firm that aids non-profit organizations and government agencies nationwide in the following practice areas: downtown and commercial district revitalization, historic preservation, tourism product development, and non-profit organizational development.
Ms. Harris is nationally known as a Main Street professional, having served as State coordinator for Illinois Main Street before starting her consulting practice in 2004. She has worked with local Main Street organizations in 24 states and presented at every national Main Street conference since starting her firm. Most recently she recorded three, 90-minute fundraising webinars for the Main Street America Institute.
AltaMira Press published her book 'New Solutions for House Museums: Ensuring the Long-Term Preservation of America’s Historic Houses' in 2007. This title has been the best seller for AltaMira Press since its publication. A second edition was published by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers/AASLH in November 2020. For 16 years Ms. Harris has been speaking about and consulting with historic house museums around the country about alternative uses and stewardship responsibilities.