Martin Van Buren National Historic Site
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M ARTIN VAN BUREN NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY, 1974-2006 SUZANNE JULIN NATIONAL PARK SERVICE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NORTHEAST REGION HISTORY PROGRAM JULY 2011 i Cover Illustration: Exterior Restoration of Lindenwald, c. 1980. Source: Martin Van Buren National Historic Site ii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 Chapter One: Recognizing Lindenwald: The Establishment Of Martin Van Buren National Historic Site 5 Chapter Two: Toward 1982: The Race To The Van Buren Bicentennial 27 Chapter Three: Saving Lindenwald: Restoration, Preservation, Collections, and Planning, 1982-1987 55 Chapter Four: Finding Space: Facilities And Boundaries, 1982-1991 73 Chapter Five: Interpreting Martin Van Buren And Lindenwald, 1980-2000 93 Chapter Six: Finding Compromises: New Facilities And The Protection of Lindenwald, 1992-2006 111 Chapter Seven: New Possibilities: Planning, Interpretation and Boundary Expansion 2000-2006 127 Conclusion: Martin Van Buren National Historic Site Administrative History 143 Appendixes: Appendix A: Martin Van Buren National Historic Site Visitation, 1977-2005 145 Appendix B: Martin Van Buren National Historic Site Staffi ng 147 Appendix C: Martin Van Buren National Historic Site Studies, Reports, And Planning Documents 1936-2006 151 Bibliography 153 Index 159 v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1.1. Location of MAVA on Route 9H in Kinderhook, NY Figure 1.2. Portrait of the young Martin Van Buren by Henry Inman, circa 1840 Library of Congress Figure 1.3. Photograph of the elderly Martin Van Buren, between 1840 and 1862 Library of Congress Figure 1.4. James Leath and John Watson of the Columbia County Historical Society Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 2.1. The Campbell colonial revival style porch, photographed August 31, 1961 Library of Congress Figure 2.2. 1982 Van Buren Bicentennial Preview Exhibit Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 2.3. Interpretive Program at MAVA, 1980 Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 2.4. 1982 Exhibit Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 2.5. 1982 historic wallpaper exhibit Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 2.6. 1982 Van Buren Bicentennial Preview Exhibit Room Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 2.7. Patricia Dacus Hamm removes historic wallpaper Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 3.1. Visitors await 1987 opening Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 3.2. George Berndt and Carol Kohan welcome visitors to the 1987 opening Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 3.3. Exterior restoration in progress Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 3.4. Superintendent Bruce Stewart speaking at 1987 opening Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 4.1. Park offi ce in house trailer behind Lindenwald, 1997 Photograph MAVA Collection vii Figure 4.2. Cinderblock Maintenance Garage directly behind Lindenwald Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 4.3. South Gatehouse Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 4.4. Model of George Stephen multipurpose building design Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 5.1. Michael Henderson and Ruth Piwonka at MAVA 25th anniversary Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 5.2. Interpreter John Eleby discusses the Formal Parlor, 2001 Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 5.3. Steven Patricia rendering of Van Buren farmlands MAVA Collection Figure 5.4. Wayside Exhibit Panel MAVA Figure 5.5. Interpreter Helen Schneider depicting a Lindenwald domestic Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 6.1. Removing old trailers behind maintenance garage, 2001 Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 6.2. New trailer facilities at MAVA Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 6.3. 2001 Sign on Route 9H protesting “ Lindenwald Trailer Park” Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 6.4. Makeshift Visitor Center attached to trailers Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 6.5. Superintendent Dan Dattilio and guests at the 2006 reopening of Lindenwald Photograph MAVA Collection Figure 7.1. Wilentz, Earle, Huston, and Weinbaum, OAH Site Visit, 2005 Photograph MAVA Collection viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thanks to Dr. Susan Ferentinos, Public History Manager at the Organization of American Historians. Her skills in coordination and her patience were instrumental in bringing this project to a conclusion. Dr. Paul Weinbaum, former regional historian, played a key role in launching and organizing the project, and his long association with Martin Van Buren National Historic Site helped to put form to the study. The site is particularly fortunate to have had several staff members who have served there for long periods of time or who have returned to successive posts there. These individuals have a fi ne sense of the park’s history and an abiding interest its present and its future. I thank Judy Harris, Michael Henderson, Jim McKay, and, particularly, Dr. Patricia West. Her tenure at the park and her knowledge of every aspect of its development has added immeasurably to this study. Most of the research for this project took place on site at Martin Van Buren Na- tional Historic Site, and park staff assisted in making that research successful and downright pleasant. Superintendent Dan Dattilio made himself available to answer questions or discuss particular issues. Patricia West spent many hours searching out resources and discussing them with me. Chief Ranger Jim McKay talked with me at length and provided important docu- ments regarding the developing of the park’s interpretive programs. Museum Specialist Judy Harris guided me through the Lindenwald mansion and grounds and shared knowledge about the park’s curatorial issues and programs. Park Ranger Dawn Olson spent many hours over a copy machine duplicating research documents. Her diligence as well as her keen eye for sa- lient facts and concepts enhanced the research process. Denise Guerrero cheerfully interrupt- ed her own administrative duties to assist with research issues and arranged to have copies of documents shipped to me. Marcia Metzger assisted in compiling photographs and maps. While the number of oral histories that could be completed was limited by budget restrictions, they added crucial information to the narrative of the site’s history. Each person contacted agreed without hesitation to be interviewed, and each of them provided unhurried, thoughtful, and candid interviews. I thank Dan Dattilio, Warren Hill, Judy Harris, Michael Henderson, Bob MacIntosh, Ruth Piwonka, Marjorie Smith, and Patricia West for sharing their time and knowledge. At the National Park Service Boston Support Offi ce, Paul Weinbaum, Dave Clark, and Ed Rizzotto pointed me to important documents and discussed broad issues surrounding Martin Van Buren National Historic Site’s history. Harry Butowski at the National Park Ser- vice’s Washington, DC, offi ce graciously met with me on a busy afternoon to off er guidance on further research. Staff at the National Park Service Harpers Ferry Center and the National Park Service Technical Information Center, Denver, discussed research issues and provided pertinent documents, and staff at National Archives II, College Park, MD, helped to identify important fi les. My thanks and appreciation go to them. ix Introduction INTRODUCTION In 1839, Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States, bought an agricultural estate near his hometown of Kinderhook, NY, in the Hudson River Valley. He renamed the estate Lindenwald. More than 170 years after his purchase, the estate’s mansion and grounds contribute to an understanding not only of Van Buren’s political career and life but also to the eff ects of agriculture and immigration on nineteenth-century society in the northeastern United States and the roles antebellum politics and the issue of slavery played in the onset of the Civil War. These contributions did not spring from the ground at Linden- wald; they were fostered over several decades by National Park Service (NPS) personnel who faced many obstacles in preserving and protecting this president’s home and lands, providing services to visitors who came there, and interpreting its signifi cance to the nation. The 1974 establishment of Martin Van Buren National Historic Site culminated decades of eff orts by numbers of supporters to seek recognition for Lindenwald. The his- toric site, originally about forty acres in size, presented many challenges. This administrative history recounts struggles for designation, appropriate interpretation, restoration, preserva- tion, conservation, and adequate facilities, as well as victories in protecting the mansion, the grounds, and the farmlands Van Buren owned from encroaching development and in deep- ening the understanding of the site’s signifi cance. The study ends in 2006, with the inception of a General Management Plan process that will complete long-term planning for the site and allow for development. The history of the administration of Martin Van Buren National Historic Site from its establishment through 2006 reveals four well-defi ned themes. The dominant theme is the inability of the NPS to establish permanent facilities at the site. Nearly four decades after its establishment by Congress, administrative offi ces and visitor services are housed in temporary trailers and a small contact station built by park maintenance staff . A substandard pole barn holds museum collections and records, and maintenance functions are carried out from a converted cement-block garage. These facilities are actually improvements over earlier ac- commodations, which were also considered temporary. Eff orts to develop permanent build- ings to house the site’s functions have been complicated by budget issues, National Park Ser- vice standards,