2007 Conservation Workshop: Van Cortlandt House Museum
Clues to the Past: An Investigation in Architecture

The "Conservation Workshop" is a semester long class offered as part of the graduate level Historic Preservation Degree Program at Columbia University. One of the goals of this course is to give students hands-on experience with investigative techniques and an opportunity to examine buildings and building elements. Each year, a historic house has been used as a study site for the students for half of the Fall semester.

In the fall of 2007, the Historic House Trust and the Curatorial Director of the Van Courtland House Museum graciously offered the Conservation Workshop the use of the Van Courtland House Museum as a study site. The Landmark house museum is owned by the City of New York, operated by The National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York and is a member of the Historic House Trust.

George Wheeler, the Director of the Center for Preservation Research in the Historic Preservation Department worked with Therese Braddock, the Executive Director of the Historic House Trust to arrange for the Van Courtland House Museum to be used as the study site. All of the participants, students, and instructors, are grateful to the Historic House Trust Staff, especially Nahn Tseng, and Laura J. Correa, Curatorial Director of the Van Courtland House Museum.

A Historic Structures Report has not yet been completed for the Museum but the History Section was completed by Neil Larson, Architectural Historian in 2006. This report was used by the students as a starting point for their own research and investigation of various elements in the house. Students worked on their own or in teams of two. The resulting research for each group is included in this report. These reports are individual areas of interest to the students but also items in the house that have generated questions. These studies are initial paths of research that have been limited in scope by time constraints of the class. The course instructors were Mary Jablonski and Joan Berkowitz, both Adjunct Faculty in the Historic Preservation Department at Columbia University.

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Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation Columbia University 1172 Amsterdam Avenue New York, New York 10027