Quick Update: What’s going on with the 1759 Vought House, Inc.

• In late September, Adam, Antje and I had a good meeting with members of the School Board’s facilities committee plus the board president, Roger Straight, Dr. Nastus and Daria, the business administrator.  Roger Straight said he’d vote to hand it over to us, the two new board members were greatly informed by our discussion of the history and current issues regarding this house.  We also talked to them about the need to put historical preservation easements in place before the property is transferred, now that it’s been placed on the New Jersey Historic Register.   The Vought house is Hunterdon County’s most significant historic site: Click_Here_for_More_Information

• Antje and Beth put together a proposal for funding from the County Cultural and Heritage Commission for a mailing to Clinton Township to increase public awareness of the historic significance of this house.  Even now, when the issue of ownership is finally close to being decided, the historic potential and severe use restrictions (see link above) are still too little known within Clinton Twp.  

• I attended, as did Janice for the Fleming Castle, the Best Practices Seminar on Telling Your Story: Interpretive Strategies for Historical Organizations.  In the morning, Richard Hunter gave information and a worksheet on documenting your site.  In the afternoon, Sandra Mackenzie Lloyd talked about the art of story telling, interpretive planning to create a storyline for the museum.  
                A museum’s storyline would offer several themes around a person or an artifact of material culture: One theme might be a personal experience within the larger historical context.  Another theme could focus on an artifact, such as the unique ceilings. 

• The subcommittee of contributors to the educational booklet is meeting on November 16 at 3pm, in preparation for the December reporting deadline and spring printing date.  Hopefully each contribution will be available in the future as a stand-alone document regarding one aspect of this Loyalist family homestead and museum, each a theme within the larger storyline of the 1759 Vought House.