In Conversation: Lessons From Boscobel

With Jennifer Carlquist, Executive Director and Curator, Boscobel House and Gardens

A great restoration is never finished” was a mantra of the late Berry Tracy, the Metropolitan Museum of Art curator and tastemaker of New York neo-classicism. This is perhaps surprising, given the stately permanence of the period rooms he furnished in the 1970s for Boscobel House and Gardens. Originally built for the Dyckman family between 1804 and 1808, Boscobel fell out of family hands and into disrepair. Anticipating its demolition, architects documented every inch of the house in 1932. Even after a “Save Boscobel!” article in ANTIQUES in 1946, the house was sold to a wrecker for thirty-five dollars and dismantled to make way for a veterans’ hospital.

Preservationists and local citizens considered it too beautiful to lose, storing key architectural fragments in barns until they were reconstructed into a museum fourteen miles north on a stunning site overlooking the Hudson River. The ersatz quality of the house and surrounding pleasure grounds—and founding patron Lila Acheson Wallace—empowered Berry Tracy to assemble the finest Federal-era furniture and fittings, including sumptuous textiles from heritage brands such as Scalamandré and Brunschwig et Fils. Boscobel became an icon of Hudson Valley beauty and history, a prototype of antiquarian glamour that Tracy helped spread to the American Wing, the White House, and beyond.

Since joining Boscobel as curator in 2015, I have delighted in activating the house with exhibitions and programs that maximized its strengths. Stepping into the executive director role in 2017 enabled me to transform other aspects of the site and its programming.

We developed a native meadow, a seasonal pavilion for programs and private events, a chamber music festival, and a nascent fundraising program. Perhaps smugly, I considered our period rooms superior to those being removed or “gallerized” elsewhere. Little altered from Tracy’s era, they were still educating and inspiring me, and generations of curators, designers, artisans, and everyday visitors.

The period rooms crashed back into focus in April 2024, when the library’s ceiling collapsed without warning. Most importantly, no one was injured or in the house at the time, but the impact caused catastrophic damage throughout the building and collection. Engineers determined a 1950s construction flaw as the cause and sounded the alarm that nineteen of the remaining twenty-four ceilings required immediate removal. We embarked on what became a sixteen-month emergency restoration to make the building safe for people and artworks.

The financial toll of the emergency restoration and closure has been staggering, far surpassing insurance reimbursements and operating resources. While our disaster does not compare to the tragic loss of life and widespread destruction caused by increasingly severe weather events across the country, it drives home a hard truth: nothing, not even the house once famously saved by Lila Wallace’s generosity, is truly saved forever.

Yet from the dust and heartbreak, opportunity rises. Messages poured in from supporters recalling favorite objects, rooms, and visits past. Colleagues, collectors, and retired restorers crossed rivers and state lines, or came out of retirement to help salvage, assess, and store all the objects we could save. The process deepened our understanding of their value. We seized the moment to install artworks in our Visitor Center and launch free rotations. Peer organizations and preservation programs began using our recovery as a learning lab. We gather knowledge and inspiration from the work of our restoration team members, who consider themselves in dialogue with the designers, artisans, and tradespeople who built, then rebuilt Boscobel, and into the future.

The ceilings will soon be back to period-perfect, but visible scars from the collapse will remain for years to come. As support and resources grow, we’ll initiate Phase II: a thoughtful reexamination of how the rooms are furnished, interpreted, and experienced. We will make careful edits to the beautiful Berry Tracy compositions we inherited and make space for ongoing evolution. Perhaps the most important thing I am restoring is Boscobel’s “never finished” mindset.

Through this process, I have been continually humbled by the generosity of community members and colleagues near and far. Thank you to everyone who came running with emergency supplies, labor, advice, and encouragement.

Thanks to the restoration wizards showcasing the best of their historic craft and trades. Thank you to the many people impatient for the house to reopen—we trust they will appreciate its scars and survival stories.

Boscobel will reopen its historic house museum on Labor Day Weekend (and on Saturdays thereafter) for limited “preservation tours.” Visit boscobel.org for details, as timelines and tour availability may change.