BY ARNOLD BERKE

(Art by Richard Thompson)

More than a year's worth of work has restored the Florence Griswold House in Old Lyme, Conn., which reopens to the public on July 1. Griswold (1850-1937) was doyenne and den mother of a group of notable painters who boarded at her 1817 house from 1899 to her death. Childe Hassam, William Chadwick, Matilda Browne, and some 200 others created many of their best works in what came to be known as the Lyme Art Colony, a center of American impressionism that took much of its inspiration from the surrounding countryside. "Miss Florence" nurtured and encouraged them all. The $2.5 million restoration—funded by Save America's Treasures and other federal sources, the state, and foundation grants—stabilized the house's exterior, upgraded its utility systems, and recreated interiors from the artists' era. The house, a gallery, and other structures form the Florence Griswold Museum, one of the founding members of Historic Artists' Homes and Studios, a Trust program that helps sites preserve collections and buildings.

... Gaining ground? The long strip of countryside from Charlottesville, Va., to Gettysburg, Pa.—steeped in history but battered by development—may be getting a better deal. Thanks to legislation introduced in Congress in April by Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) and Sen. George Allen (R-Va.), this three-state corridor, known as the Journey Through Hallowed Ground, could become a National Heritage Area. NHA designation recognizes places where natural and cultural features coalesce into well-defined landscapes that groups, governments, and commercial interests can work jointly to preserve. The nation's 27 heritage areas include New York's Hudson River valley, the National Coal Heritage Area in West Virginia, and Yuma Crossing on the Colorado River in Arizona. The movement to safeguard the Journey zone advanced last year when the Trust named it one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

... More 11-Most cheer: New York State will give $76 million to renovate the old Buffalo State Hospital, an H.H. Richardson landmark that has sat vacant and decaying for years, once a new use is found for the complex. The buildings, built from 1871 to 1896, were added to the Trust's endangered-sites list in 1999.

... Do you keep up with the government's preservation performance? Then the Trust's new Public Policy Weekly Bulletin should be your first source for news. These online updates cover the latest federal, state, and local actions through the doings of legislatures, agencies, and courts—and also report on what the Trust and its partners are doing in response. A new issue appears each Friday at www.capwiz.com/nthp2/home. You can also reach the bulletin from the Trust's newly redesigned Web site, www.nationaltrust.org.

... An inn, a house, a resort, and a hotel have joined the roster of Historic Hotels of America. The Gasparilla Inn and Cottages (1912) on Florida's west coast island of Boca Grande—named for 18th-century Spanish pirate Jose Gaspar—is favored by boating and fishing aficionados. Overlooking a different sort of waterfront, the clapboard-clad Kelley House in downtown Edgartown (Martha's Vineyard), Mass., opened as a tavern in 1742. The Castle Hill Resort and Spa (1905) was built in Ludlow, Vt., of local stone and California redwood—fittingly by a quarry and timber baron, Alan Fletcher, who later became Vermont governor. And back in the city, namely Milwaukee, the Ambassador Hotel has been returned to its 1927 art deco luster. The new quartet swells the HHA list to 211.

Read more from our July/August 2006 issue online, look for Preservation on newsstands, e-mail us to purchase a copy.

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