Sept/Oct. 2008 Preservation: Exclusive, Inside Story about the controversial restoration of Montpelier, James Madison's Historic Home
Issue Spotlights Historic Sites – Casa del Herrero, California’s Lavish Golden Age Estate, Chicago’s new Richard H. Driehaus Museum and Opulent Embassies in Paris, Prague and Rome
Posted August 19, 2008 | Contact pr@nthp.org or 202-588-6141
Washington, DC (August 18, 2008)—The September/October 2008 Preservation has the exclusive, inside story about the controversial and complicated restoration of Montpelier, James Madison's historic home, which is about to emerge from a 5-year, multimillion dollar restoration. The magazine's focus on historic sites continues with illustrated features about: California's Casa del Herrero, a lavish Spanish Colonial Revival estate; Chicago's "Marble Palace," home of the new Richard H. Driehaus Museum; and, several of the nation's most beautiful overseas diplomatic residences preserved and restored by the U.S. State Department.
Features
Cover Story – "Uncovering Montpelier's Hidden Past"
By Christopher Shea
The five year, $24 million restoration of Montpelier, home of James Madison, Father of the US Constitution and the fourth US President, which officially reopens on September 17, Constitution Day, is not without controversy. Uncovering the original neoclassical house, the Madison family home from 1797-1836, meant deconstructing a substantial 20th century addition – removing 29 of 55 rooms – made by duPont family members. Was there enough historical evidence to insure an accurate restoration, or would the end result be, as one scholar put it, an "elegant fake?" Preservation reveals the back story on this ambitious restoration project.
"Gardener's Eden": Casa del Herrero offers a rare glimpse of an estate from California's Golden Age, and demonstrates the sheer beauty of preservation"
By Eric T. Haskell.
High on the central California coastline in Montecito lays Casa del Herrero, one of the finest examples of residential Spanish Colonial Revival architecture open to the public anywhere. Established in the early 1920's by George Fox Steedman, a St. Louis foundry owner, Casa del Herrero – which means House of the Blacksmith – is rare for retaining its original period furnishings, including remarkable decorative metalwork, and its spectacular Country Place Era landscape.
"Glimpses of a Vanished World: Richard Driehaus restored Chicago's faded 'Marble Palace' and turned it into a stunning new downtown museum"
By James H. Schwartz.
With 17 different types of marble and more than 24,000 square feet, Chicago's late 19th century Nickerson Mansion has long been known as the "Marble Palace." It has recently reopened as the Richard H. Driehaus Museum, a stunningly beautiful tribute to Chicago's world-renowned contributions to art and architecture. Thanks to financier Richard Driehaus, the massive sandstone mansion, built in 1883 for $450,000 (more than $9 million today), has been reborn as one of Chicago's great new cultural institutions, complete with some of the home's original furniture, period objects and superb artwork from Driehaus' collection and an exhibition space dedicated to Tiffany lamps.
"The Group: An intrepid State Department cadre helps preserve embassies abroad"
By Charles Trueheart.
In an era of budget cuts, a nearly invisible group inside the U.S. State Department champions the meticulous preservation of places most of us will never see – priceless overseas diplomatic properties. Preservation goes behind the scenes at lavish U.S. embassies in three great European capitals – Paris, Prague and Rome.
PDF versions of each feature are available upon request.
Shorter Items
"Yankee Stadium"
Preservation speaks to New Yorkers, including the late Bobby Murcer, about their memories of the iconic stadium, which will be completely demolished by 2010.
"Artful Escape"
In three bucolic villages near the banks of the Connecticut River, some of New England's finest treasures have been protected and preserved. Writer Joanne Curtis Evarts examines New Hampshire's famed Cornish Colony, home to the Saint-Gaudens estate – one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Historic Artists' Homes and Studios.
"Hallowed Ground"
"The Journey Through Hallowed Ground," a swath of land that runs through Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, is home to dozens of historic places, including nine presidential homes, 73 National Historic Districts, 15 historic Main Street communities, several significant African American historic sites, and the nation's largest concentration of Civil War landmarks. In May, President Bush signed a law designating it "National Heritage Area."
Sites that are threatened, saved or have been restored:
Threatened: Main Street Windermere (Windermere, FL); Garland H. Jones Building (Raleigh, NC) Saved: St. Brigid's Church (New York, NY); Hoboken Ferry Terminal and Clock Tower (Hoboken, NJ)
Restored: Chicago Cultural Center Tiffany Dome (Chicago, IL); Nemours Mansion and Gardens (Wilmington, DE).
Associate Editor Eric Wills reports on the future of the S.S. United States, purchased by Norwegian Cruise Line, but languishing dockside in Philadelphia.
