Stewardship, a “Negotiated Act of Adaptation”
Author: William Richards, Ph.D.
The process is as important as the outcome in interpreting and restoring historic properties, and preservation is about the past and the present—that was the message for a standing-room only crowed convened by ICAA and the Jenrette Foundation to talk about stewardship and innovation.
On September 24, a standing-room-only audience gathered at the General Society Library in New York for “Elevating Stewardship: Restoring and Reviving Iconic House Museums,” the third in the ICAA’s Richard H. Jenrette Preservation Series. Jennifer Carlquist, Robert Leath, and Trish Lowe Smith recounted some of their sharpest restoration challenges, and revealed how the restoration process itself can be a vehicle for engagement.
Restoration is a tool for interpretation, the expert panel agreed, inclusive of curators, artisans, students, and visitors to highlight labor, research, and the critical thinking that animates architectural concerns. Temporary states of repair, scaffolding, archeological finds, and the ephemera of attics can be harnessed to provoke questions, deepen connections to communities whose stories are enmeshed with architectural spaces, and reveal handicraft from toolmarks to the lives of artisans, themselves.
Jenrette Foundation President Benjamin Prosky opened the evening by discussing the broader acknowledgement in heritage practices that restoration is not always a return to a pure “original” form, but a negotiated act of adaptation—a conversation among past, present, and future tenses. In doing so, it reclaims restoration as an interpretive medium.
“The Jenrette Foundation believes that sometimes the process of restoration can be even more important than the final project because the process is where research and education can take place,” said Prosky, “ and the process is where important decisions are made that will determine the longevity of the project and contribute to its history–-and to the here and now.”
A “never-finished” mindset
In an era of constrained funding, shifting audiences, and evolving notions of narrative inclusion, historic house museums frequently find themselves at a crossroads. Many struggle to balance the demands of conservation, accessibility, interpretation, and institutional relevance. Some have struck a more flexible position for themselves and for historic preservation’s practice.
At Drayton Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, the reconsideration of a decorative ceiling is inseparable from ongoing documentation and archival discovery. Trish Lowe Smith, the Director of Preservation and Archives, points to the ceiling’s motifs and its materiality as only the opening gambit to engage new visitors.
We had evenly spaced cracks in the ceiling, lining up with the floor joists above. Many attempts have been made to remedy this, including 1979 and 2002. “We’re asking questions like, ‘Are those previous interventions working? If it’s old, but original, do we treat it differently?’
To answer those questions, Smith’s Drayton Hall pursued laser scanning, photogrammetry, surface/ground penetration, infrared thermography, and digital x-rays—publishing the results in a report, and convening experts to troubleshoot a possible solution. The new ceiling will be deconstructed and replaced with new steel beams and new plaster cast from the old ceiling.
“We can think about tradition in different ways,” she said, “and that includes our preservation philosophy, which can be rigid. We could have epoxied that ceiling back together again, but we chose to preserve safe access for our visitors.”
At Cupola House in Edenton, for instance, the return of original wood paneling—after a century in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum—engages visitors with the artifact and the journey of recovery. Robert Leath, Executive Director of the Edenton Historical Commission and of the Elizabeth Vann Moore Foundation, says it’s about making the house whole again, but it’s also about opening the door to conversations about technical precision and craftsmanship.
“The reason the Brooklyn Museum wanted it was quite evident—once you get inside, the woodwork is an encyclopedia of Colonial American woodwork derived from British design, adapted from the great Baroque pattern books from the 18th century,” said Leath.
The Cupola House Association recreated the original woodwork in the 1960s, which had to be removed in order for the original, en route from Brooklyn, could be reinstalled.
“In that process of destruction, you can have a process of creativity. We had to strip everything down and we learned a few things in the process, such as the circulation pattern of the house had been misinterpreted in the 20th century. One original door had been sealed up, and we realized one door we assumed was original was an later addition. It completely transformed how we think about the ways the rooms were used.”
“Elevating Stewardship: Restoring and Reviving Iconic House Museums” (L-R) panelists Robert Leath, Trish Lowe Smith, Jennifer Carlquist, and Jenrette Foundation President Benjamin Prosky.
At Boscobel, the 2024 ceiling collapse and closure of the property for restoration offers a narrative lens through which the organization can reconceive its interiors, accessibility, and visitor pathways. Jennifer Carlquest, Boscobel’s Executive Director and Curator, reflected on how a distressing crisis can become a generative moment—a chance to reimagine the interiors, to repair not only fabric but visitor relationships, and to elevate the house museum as a living institution.
“We’re talking about what happens when you don’t have advanced research or advanced warning—we are the best case of the worst case scenario,” said Carlquist. “The restoration of Boscobel was an emergency and we’ve gone a lot farther in the last 18 months than we thought we would, but it’s still part of our ‘never finished’ mindset.”
While meticulous maintenance plans are vital, the stewards of these places must also remain nimble, ready to adapt to unexpected challenges, reinterpretation demands, and evolving public expectations. “A house museum is never ‘finished’,” is a powerful refrain, and veils an uncommon ability among stewards to adapt to changing circumstances.
“Creativity and innovation must be part of the future of house museums, not at the expense of careful stewardship but as the engine of greater public engagement,” said Prosky.
Benjamin Prosky and William L. Thompson Fellows Grace Billingslea and Steven Baltsas.
This event marks the third installment in the Richard H. Jenrette Preservation Series, a collaboration between ICAA and the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation that seeks to catalyze public programming around classical architecture and preservation. The series continues Jenrette’s legacy of promoting the stewardship of architectural heritage, especially the unglamorous and ongoing work required to keep historic houses alive. The evening’s sponsors included RINCK, Dell Mitchell Architects, and Hyde Park Mouldings. Their partnership underscores the realm of architecture, conservation, and craft working in harmony with public institutions.