History
In 1988, the City Parks department established a Historic House Office to preserve the 16 City-owned historic house-museums located in City parks. This office gave way to the Historic House Trust of New York City in 1989, funded by private donations, as well as grants, with the goal of each house becoming a professionally-accredited museum. In an effort to increase awareness of the program during its first year of operation, the Trust developed a so-called passport program wherein visitors would receive stamps each time they visited one of the houses. If a visitor went to all 15 properties, they would receive an audience with the Mayor. HHT's passport program was brought back in 2008 as a method of commemorating the Trust's 20th anniversary.
The Trust also holds events such as the Historic Houses Festival, during which all the houses are open with different events at each, in order to raise awareness. New properties are added to the Trust when they come under city control if private care-taking or ownership has not succeeded, although the contents of the home may remain under private ownership.
Read more about this topic: Historic House Trust
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“A country grows in history not only because of the heroism of its troops on the field of battle, it grows also when it turns to justice and to right for the conservation of its interests.”
—Aristide Briand (1862–1932)
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)