1/26/10 Read it here
The majority of some 100 people at a public forum about the future of Hope Lodge last week said they would be interested in seeing a community supported agriculture farm or an eastern Montgomery County tourism office at the Whitemarsh Township historic site.
The Friends of Hope Lodge held the open forum at the First Presbyterian Church in Flourtown to discuss alternative uses for the site and garner community support with the goal of reopening it this spring.
The Friends’ long-term goal is to create a sustainable operating plan and make the 40-acre property a more valuable and attractive community resource.
The meeting took place Jan. 20, exactly two months after budget cuts and layoffs at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission forced the historic site to temporarily close.
For Montgomery County, this meant that PHMC-owned sites Hope Lodge and Graeme Park in Horsham lost a part-time site administrator who worked at both locations, and a groundskeeper.
Graeme Park was able to reopen soon after the Friends group sent a resolution to the PHMC resolving to keep the site open for the same hours, which President Beth MacCausland attributed to a part-time employee the Friends hired and an active Friends organization.
The Friends of Hope Lodge is working on getting clarification from the PHMC regarding the requirements for reopening the site. This would include making arrangements for necessary access for orientation and training for new volunteers and events, President Jack Gumbrecht said.
The most pressing need right now is for more volunteers.
“We have a dedicated corps of volunteers, but we need more help,” he told the audience. “Volunteers are more important to us than money.”
The Friends need more people to help with tours, garden maintenance, special events, public meetings and volunteer services so it can open again this spring.
Members will soon start contacting those who expressed an interest in volunteering to review their interests and arrange orientation.
Others interested in helping can sign up at www.ushistory.org/hope.
Before Nov. 20, Hope Lodge was open to the public Friday through Sunday. Volunteers operated the site on Sundays.
Now Harrisburg wants a management plan from the Friends detailing how it would keep the site open.
The PHMC will continue to pay utilities and maintenance, which includes cutting the grass, shoveling snow and simple repairs, but the Friends would be expected to pay for expenses related to operation, such as salary if the group decides to hire a part-time employee.
Through its annual licensing agreement with the state, the Friends have access to the grounds, offices and store, but not the mansion.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Gumbrecht presented a slideshow of the Friends’ ideas for alternative uses for the property several years in the future.
These included partnering with local universities, installing playground equipment or sports fields, business ventures, such as a flower store, or creating a CSA, a program in which members prepay for a share of produce each week.
The Friends have budgeted money for feasibility studies to explore how the multiple ideas would fare on the property, and the community may ultimately see elements of several, Gumbrecht said.
A vote from the audience showed the most popular ideas are establishing a CSA, many of which in the area have waiting lists, and a community member’s idea to open an eastern Montgomery County tourism office.
After the meeting, three members of the Historical Society of Fort Washington said they were particularly interested in the CSA, and said Hope Lodge should continue to operate because it is a valuable educational resource.
“We are lucky to be in this part of the country where we have so much Revolutionary War history,” Jane Douglass said.
“I think it really needs to be saved.”
In a room of mostly adults, Mark Tournier, 17, a war re-enactor from Springfield Township High School who got his start at Hope Lodge, said he could go with any of the ideas except for opening the site to recreational purposes.
“We have two events each year that are on baseball fields and that just takes away the authenticity,” he said.
