Baltimore's announcement last week that it will turn over some of its most historic sites to private operators sounded familiar to heritage consultant Peggy Fiori.
A decade ago, the wife of Maryland Historical Society Director Dennis Fiori worked for a Boston-based preservation group that faced similar struggles. Nowhere do historic homes emerge and fade more frequently than in the land of the Pilgrims.
The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities now maintains 60 historical properties in five states.
"We were constantly getting phone calls from people saying, 'Can you please take our house?' " Fiori said. "They start a museum, but when the operator gets old or the public loses interest, you're dealing with a crisis."
As Baltimore sends out a distress signal for caretakers for its most hallowed sites, it only has to look across the state and nation to learn that it is not alone in its struggle.
Since the swell of historical interest surrounding the nation's 200th birthday in 1976, an increasing wave of house museums and properties with historical ties are becoming orphans.
In 1995, a $22 million history park in Richmond, Va., closed 16 months after it opened because of low attendance. Two years ago, Atlanta Heritage Row, a small private history museum along the Underground Railroad, died amid the fanfare of the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Across the country, 5,700 properties are listed as history museums, historic sites or art museums, according to the American Association of Museums.
"When you slice up the pie into smaller and smaller pieces, the competition for funding grows," said Charles Bryan Jr., director of the Virginia Historical Society. "There are a lot of choices to make about how to spend your free time and, of course, that has a dramatic effect on fund raising."
Baltimore has learned the hard way. A year ago, the city shut down its eight-building City Life Museums after the private, nonprofit operators were $2.5 million in debt. The city closed the doors after subsidizing the sites with $837,000 a year since 1993.
As the city attempts to find stewards for the properties, it will find a road well-traveled.
During the 1980s, Maryland created a pioneer program called Curatorship, which allowed private groups to take over 18th- and 19th-century properties in state parks. The buildings were under the care of the state Department of Natural Resources, which had trouble maintaining the sites.
