Recipient Organization
STATE UNIV OF NEW YORK
(N/A)
SYRACUSE,NY 13210
Performing Department
Landscape Architecture
Non Technical Summary
Rose Hill Mansion, a Greek Revival house built in 183 7 that overlooks Seneca Lake and the city of Geneva, New York, is surrounded by designed grounds and was historically the center of a model farm. It remained a private home and working farm for nearly 130 years. In 1965, Rose Hill Mansion was purchased for the Geneva Historical Society(GHS) by Waldo Hutchins, Jr. in honor of his mother, Agnes Swan. Through the generosity of Mr. Hutchins, the mansion was restored and furnished, and opened to the public in 1968. Mr. Hutchins also established an endowment to provide for the ongoing maintenance and operation of Rose Hill Mansion. The historical society received a bequest from John A. Hutchins, Waldo Hutchins' son, in 2013 establishing an additional endowment for Rose Hill. The property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986.Geneva Historical Society owns 27 acres of the original 1,100-acre Rose Hill prope1iy. The twelve-acre core landscape surrounding the mansion, the subject of this scope of work, features lawn, specimen trees, formal gardens, drives, a pond, parking, old field succession, and a complex of outbuildings that includes a carriage house contemporary with the mansion, and a later carpenter shop, large tenant houses, and barn. The remaining fifteen acres are located across the divided four-lane highway of NY 96A and were acquired to preserve the lake views from the mansion. This property contains a commercial apricot orchard and is leased to Red Jacket Orchards. Most of the remaining land historically associated with Rose Hill is privately owned and farmed.Rose Hill Mansion is today operated as a museum that interprets the ownership period of the Swan family between 1850 and 1890. The site is open six days a week from May to October, with the house open by guided tour only. The mansion and grounds are also used for school programs and specials events such as the Rose Hill Food and Wine Celebration and the Plein Air Festival reception. The Carriage House, Carpenter Shop and large tenant house are opened to the public while the remaining structures are used for storage. Currently, the Carriage House is a public and private space. The ground floor serves as the Rose Hill Mansion Visitor Center and Gift Shop (which includes exhibit space and public restroom). A documentary about the restoration of Rose Hill is shown in the Carpenter Shop. Since 2012, the large tenant house has been leased as a tasting room for Billsboro Winery.Awarded Start Date: 8/1/2016Sponsor: Geneva Historical Society
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
This project supports the documentation, evaluation, and treatment planning for the cultural landscape of the Rose Hill Mansion property that will be packaged as a Cultural Landscape Report (CLR). Development of research findings and products will be led by a landscape architecture graduate student under the supervision of SUNY ESF faculty and staff.The work will follow National Park Service (NPS) guidelines as contained in Robert Page, Cathy Gilbert, and Susan Dolan, Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports: Contents, Process, and Techniques (NPS, 1998). The SUNY project team will work in close partnership with the Geneva Historical Society (OHS) throughout this project. The scope of the project includes research, writing, and graphics corresponding to the Site History, Existing Conditions, and Analysis & Evaluation components of CLR Part I, and Treatment that comprises CLR Pait II. This research will help OHS protect the landscape's character-defining features from alteration or loss and provide recommendations on changes to enhance the historic character and contemporary use of the cultural landscape. In particular, treatment will address how to achieve and maintain a balance between preserving the mansion and interpreting the entire site, and how best to address current and future uses of the landscape.Research will be conducted at a "thorough" level of investigation, which is defined by the NPS as "research in selected published and documentary sources of known or presumed relevance that are readily accessible without extensive travel and that promise expeditious extraction of relevant data, interviewing all knowledgeable persons who are readily available ... [ as well as] non-destructive investigation using all appropriate teclmical means" (NPS 28: Cultural Resource Management Guideline).The project study area encompasses the twelve-acre core landscape surrounding the Rose Hill Mansion along the east side of NY 96A (see aimotated aerial on p. 7). The surrounding agricultural land owned in part by OHS, or historically associated with the Rose Hill property, will be documented to the extent that it informs understanding and future management of the core Rose Hill landscape, notably protection of the historic rural setting.
Project Methods
Work planning and consultation under this task agreement will begin in August 2016, and project work will be completed by August 31, 2019. The projected schedule, which is built around the academic schedule for the Masters of Landscape Architecture (3-year program) includes• August 2016 to May 2017 (first academic year): Begin research, site documentation, project meetings, 5 hours/week, fall and spring semesters• Summer 2017 internship: Site history, existing conditions, analysis & evaluation, 40 hours/week for 10 weeks• August 2017 to May 2018 (graduate student continues focused work on project duri1i.g second academic year): Continued work on site history, existing conditions, analysis & evaluation, 10 hours/week, fall and spring semesters• Summer 2018 internship: Completion of site history, existing conditions, analysis & evaluation (CLR Part I), and beginning of treatment planning (CLR Pmi II), 40 hours/week for 10 weeks• August 2018 to May 2019: (graduate students continues focused work on project as part of capstone studio project during third and final academic year): Completion of treatment recommendations (CLR Part II)• Summer 2019: Printing of final rep 011.: