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Headlines at Hopkins
News Release

Office of News and Information
Johns Hopkins University
3003 N. Charles Street, Suite 100
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-3843
Phone: (410) 516-7160
Fax (410) 516-5251

June 27, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Beth Nowell
410-516-0341, or
Catherine Arthur
410-516-8647


Foundation Commits $61,000 for
Homewood House Survey

The Richard C. von Hess Foundation has awarded a $61,000 grant to support a Historic American Building Survey at Homewood House, a national historic landmark located on the Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus, 3400 N. Charles St. in Baltimore.

HABS, a National Park Service program, will document the present condition of the house, which was built between 1801 and 1804 and is considered to be among the finest examples of Federal-period architecture in America. Starting in October, a HABS team will be at Homewood to produce measured drawings and take archival-quality photographs of the house, which will then be used to assist the university's continuing efforts to preserve the site. HABS documentation would also allow Homewood to rebuild according to original specifications in case of future damage to the building.

Visitors to Homewood, which is open to the public for tours, will gain insights into the preservation process through a temporary exhibition on the museum's lower level examining the origins of HABS and its early work in Maryland.

The HABS project also coincides with two new fall 2003 courses at Homewood House: Architecture in the United States, 1860-1930, offered by Johns Hopkins' History of Art Department and taught by visiting professor W. Barksdale Maynard, and Historic Preservation: Learning from Homewood, a non-credit Odyssey program open to the public. Both courses will incorporate the HABS team's work into the curricula, offering students an inside look into historic preservation.

"We are tremendously grateful for the von Hess Foundation gift," said Robert Saarnio, director of the Historic Houses of Johns Hopkins University. "HABS is one of the most revered and time-honored programs in the field of architectural preservation. Having the HABS team here is a once in a lifetime chance to introduce the campus to the gold standard of preservation practice. Once the documents are complete, they will also help the university better manage the site."

"The Homewood HABS project will have a far-reaching effect beyond Baltimore," Saarnio said. "When the Homewood documentation is complete, HABS will digitize the images and place them on the Web. This will allow scholars of early American architecture to examine Homewood's design from anywhere in the world and upload the images for instruction and study."

The gift to Homewood House reflects the life-long interest of Richard Craig von Hess in both architecture and education, areas which he sought to support through the creation of the foundation just before his death in 1997. The Historic Houses of Johns Hopkins University have greatly benefitted from the foundation's generosity twice in the past, with grants in 2000 and 2001 supporting conservation projects at Evergreen House, the university's other historic house museum.

Homewood House is open for tours Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and $3 for students. JHU students, faculty and staff are admitted free. For information on exhibitions and programs at the museum, call 410-516-5589.

Related Web Sites
Historic Houses of Johns Hopkins University
Historic American Building Survey (HABS)


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