Hearthside - The House That Love Built

PRESERVE RHODE ISLAND SELECTS HEARTHSIDE FOR BUSINESS PLANNING PROJECT

Five historic sites from around the state have been selected to participate in a Business Planning for Historic Site Sustainability project by Preserve Rhode Island and the RI Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission, and Hearthside was one of the fortunate ones that will benefit!  Preserve Rhode Island has hired four graduate business school and museum studies interns to complete the project over the summer.  This project is the first of its kind in Rhode Island.

The other sites selected are the Babcock-Smith House in Westerly, Linden Place in Bristol , Smith's Castle in Wickford, and the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society in Kingston.

The project will get underway the first week in June.  Once these individual business plans are complete, a business plan template will be created and made available to the members of the Rhode Island Historic Sites Coalition, a network of over 50 historic sites throughout the state that are open to the public. The interns will analyze alternative business models for historic sites.

Preserve Rhode Island will convene two workshops in September and October.  The first will convene the five historic sites and their boards to discuss the implementation of the individual business plans, and the second one to discuss the outcome of the project with the members of the RI Historic Sites Coalition.

"The current economic crisis significantly stresses historic site organizations, many of which already operated on shoestrings and now find their futures very challenged.  The business planning project will suggest ways historic site organizations might succeed - both by adopting site specific business plans and by exploring the benefits of affiliation - including joint ventures, partnerships and creative strategies to work more efficiently." - Valerie Talmage, Executive Director, Preserve Rhode Island.

The Business Planning Project is funded by a federal grant from Preserve America to the RI Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission and partially matched with a grant from the Rhode Island Foundation.

Return to top