Work Begins at Texas Artist's Studio
By Margaret Foster | Online Only | Aug. 26, 2009
One of the oldest museums in Texas is being restored.
Work began yesterday on the castle-like Elisabet Ney Museum in Austin, founded in 1911. During the $268,000 project—just part of a larger $5 million plan to restore the entire acre site—workers will repair the mansion's water-damaged foundation, make the museum handicapped-accessible, and restore the landscape to its early-20th-century appearance.
Built in 1892 as the studio of German artist Elisabeth Ney (1833-1907), the neoclassical mansion known as Formosa displays all of her portraits. The city has owned the two-acre site since 1941 and last restored it in the early 1980s.
"When Elisabet Ney built this, she waterproofed it with clay. At times of heavy rainfall, we get water in the basement," Curator Mary Collins-Blackmon. "It's deteriorating the foundation."
In 2003, the museum received a $250,000 grant in 2003 from Save America's Treasures, a public-private partnership between the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Park Service. The city matched that grant with a 2006 bond measure.
The Elisabet Ney Museum is part of the National Trust's Partner Places program.
Subscribe to the Today's News RSS feed
Comments
Submitted by Pat at: September 1, 2009
Kudos to everybody working so hard to save this historic treasure.