The Historic House Trust of New York City was formed in 1989 as a public-private partnership with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation [1] to preserve the historic houses located within New York City parks, [2] although most of the houses were not originally city-owned. [3] The Trust works with the individual houses to restore and promote the houses as a means of educating residents and visitors about the social, economic and political history of New York City and cast urban history in a new light. [4] The Trust includes 23 historic sites, with 18 operating as museums and attracting 729,000 annual visitors. [2]
The Historic House Trust includes properties in each of New York City's five boroughs, [5] and there is a house for every period in the City's history, depending on one's scheme of dividing history. [4] A number of the properties have live-in caretakers to help prevent vandalism and other problems. [6]
In 1988, the City Parks department established a Historic House Office to preserve the 23 City-owned historic house-museums located in City parks. This office gave way to the Historic House Trust of New York City in 1989, funded by private donations, [9] as well as grants, [10] with the goal of each house becoming a professionally accredited museum. [11] In an effort to increase awareness of the program during its first year of operation, the Trust developed a so-called passport program wherein visitors would receive stamps each time they visited one of the houses. If a visitor went to all 23 properties, they would receive an audience with the Mayor. [12] HHT's passport program was brought back in 2008 as a method of commemorating the Trust's 20th anniversary. [13]
The Trust also holds events such as the Historic Houses Festival, during which all the houses are open with different events at each, in order to raise awareness. [9] New properties are added to the Trust when they come under city control if private care-taking or ownership has not succeeded, [14] although the contents of the home may remain under private ownership. [15]