The Preservation Society of Newport County’s winter lecture series, “Historic House, Historic Home,” will provide extensive advice for owners of antique properties. Preservation experts from Historic New England and Preserve Rhode Island will explain the value of preservation easements to provide legal protection for a property, how to choose the right paint shade, restore a window or repoint a chimney, and how life was lived in the 18th & 19th centuries.
Admission for each lecture is $5 for Preservation Society members, $10 for non-members. Advance reservations are required. Reservations can be made online at www.NewportMansions.org/Learn/Lectures or by calling(401) 847-1851.
Thursday, February 11, 2016 12:00 p.m. Rosecliff, 548 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI
Period-Appropriate Exterior Paint Colors for Your Historic House
Sally Zimmerman, Senior Preservation Services Manager, Historic New England
Learn how historic paint color relates to the character of your historic house. Regardless of the age of your home, the character and appearance of the house can be enhanced through traditional paint placement and the use of colors that relate to its architectural style.
Thursday, February 18, 2016 12:00 p.m. Rosecliff, 548 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI
Protecting Your Historic Property with a Preservation Easement
Val Talmage, Executive Director, Preserve Rhode Island
Preservation easements are a little-used tool to protect historic places in RI. This lecture will introduce and explain Preserve Rhode Island’s new initiative to assess historic properties that are adjacent to conserved land as candidates for easements. Protecting properties that are adjacent to conserved land is one of the most effective ways to protect the scenic and historic character of Aquidneck Island, and will provide future legal protections for your historic home.
Thursday, February 25, 2016 12:00 p.m. Isaac Bell House, 70 Perry Street, Newport, RI
The Lost Art of Etiquette
Megan L. MacNeil, Social Historian & Registrar, Historic New England
This lecture will be based on Phillips family documents (Phillips House is one of Historic New England’s properties), including journals, diaries, calendars and letters. Learn about letter writing etiquette, how to pay a visit and when to leave a calling card – expected behavior for different members of the Phillips family and their household staff – as well as proper dining room and parlor etiquette during the period between the 1880s and 1940s.
Thursday, March 10, 2016 12:00 p.m. Rosecliff, 548 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI
Maintaining Your Old House
Joseph Cornish, Supervising Preservation Services Stewardship Manager, Historic New England
Whether your home is one or one hundred years old, completing an annual inspection of the building and undertaking routine maintenance in a timely manner will go a long way to preventing future expensive repairs. This lecture will focus on what to look for when inspecting the exterior and interior of historic buildings, and how to appropriately correct problems and repair historic building fabric.
Thursday, March 31, 2016 12:00 p.m. Rosecliff, 548 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI
Voices from the Back Stairs: Domestic Servants in New England
Dr. Jennifer Pustz, Museum Historian, Historic New England
Although domestic servants made everyday life in grand homes possible, their identities and roles within the household have long been hidden. This lecture will illustrate the diversity of domestic service in New England over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by focusing on three Historic New England properties. Period domestic manuals, ephemera, and other general material will also bring the lives of servants and relationships with their employers to the foreground.
The Preservation Society of Newport County, Rhode Island, is a non-profit organization accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and dedicated to preserving and interpreting the area’s historic architecture, landscapes, decorative arts and social history. Its 11 historic properties–seven of them National Historic Landmarks–span more than 250 years of American architectural and social development. For more information, visit www.NewportMansions.org.
