RE: [UC] Good intentions are not enough; it takes money, too

[Dubin, Elisabeth]

I'm hard-pressed to see what lessons a regular homeowner in UC can learn from the house-museum problem.   The problems that plague historic house museums are real, but we should not confuse those issues with the historic districting debate going on in our neighborhood.  House museums need endowments and ticket sales to pay for staff, maintenance, and improvements.  If no one visits a house museum, it's a valid question to ask, "Should the museum continue to operate?"   A historic district in a residential neighborhood is a separate animal.  I don't charge admission to visit my house, and I don't have an endowment.  If visitation drops, I'm not forced to cut back my staff.  I can turn my house into a B&B if I feel like it and the zoning board agrees.  I'm not pretending to present a re-enactment of the past, and I don't need to make sure no one sits on my antique furniture.    Barbara Silberman, in her article, says, "As a society, we need to establish a greater range of options so that local preservationists can make smart choices about the buildings they save."  I would think this is more of an endorsement for the historic homeowner tax credit, or for commercial tax credits or facade easements, than a criticism of Historic Districting.   I'm sure Al will disagree with my separation of this two issues, so I look forward to reading the response.     ELISABETH DUBIN Hillier ARCHITECTURE One South Penn Square, Philadelphia, PA 19107-3502 | T 215 636-9999 | F 215 636-9989 | hillier.com   From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2005 8:33 AM To: UnivCity@list.purple.com Subject: [UC] Good intentions are not enough; it takes money, too Based on the publicity about the Maxwell mansion museum in Germantown, there's an interesting "opinion" in the Metro Commentary section of today's Philadelphia Inquirer. It's by Barbara Silberman, executive director of the Heritage Philadelphia Program. Ms Silberman discusses the sad fate of many genuinely historic properties converted to museums by people eager to preserve them. They often suffer because the good intentions of the preservationists are not matched by the money needed for the restoration and upkeep.   A good message between the lines for people who think historic designation of whole neighborhoods more appropriately identified as "period" than "historic" has a nice ring to it... but don't realize what it'll cost the people who own, live, and/or work there.   For those who don't want to give their personal details to the Inquirer and therefore can't read it online, I've got it posted on the widely-acclaimed and world-famous historic designation website: http://www.iconworldwide.com/histodis/inky501.htm   Always at your service and ready for a dialog, Al Krigman