Bartow-Pell Mansion Needs Public's Vote for Grant Competition

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The Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum in the north Bronx is one of 40 New York City sites competing for $3 million in grant money, American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced Thursday in a press conference at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.   

To help win one of the grants, Bartow-Pell needs supporters to cast online votes in the competition being conducted by Partners in Preservation, a program to sustain and enhance historic sites. Bartow-Pell, both a New York City and National Landmark, is one of the most beautifully situated historic houses in the city. It welcomes thousands of visitors annually for guided and group tours of its elegant mansion, formal gardens, and woodland trails.

But with a history that spans nearly four centuries, Bartow-Pell is urgently pursuing a grant for $155,000 from the Partners in Preservation campaign.

“Time has taken its toll,” says Ellen Bruzelius, the site’s executive director. “The grant –when we win– will help us restore our terraced gardens, the Pell family cemetery, and the chestnut tree allée that leads down to Long Island Sound. What is lovely now will be more so and the improvements will ensure the garden’s longevity. Please vote for our Beauty in the Bronx.”

There are two ways anyone, anywhere, age 13 or over, can do that by going online. Go to partnersinpreservation.com or Facebook.com/PartnersinPreservation and select the Boroughs tab on the voting tool. Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum and Gardens will be under Bronx. Individuals can—and should!—vote once a day from April 26 to May 21.

Just to be chosen as one of 40 sites in the competition was something of an achievement for the small, hidden jewel at Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, which is competing against bigger names such as the Guggenheim and the Intrepid.

 “Bartow-Pell may be a small organization, but we have a big vision,” says Bartow-Pell Conservancy President Catherine Campbell Scinta. “We’re competing with well-known, large sites of great value to New York City. But we think of ourselves as ‘the little museum that could.’ So we’re pulling out all the stops to get out the vote for our small but important historic site.”

Partners in Preservation is a program in which American Express, in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, awards preservation grants to historic places across the country.

At Thursday’s press conference, launching the NYC program, American Express Chairman of the Board and CEO Kenneth I. Chenault said, “The program allows every New Yorker to participate at the ballot box. It’s a terrific way to support the places that may New York great.”

Katharine McPhee from the TV hit Smash sang New York, New York as a multimedia reveal of the sites played around her onstage.

This year’s four top winners of the online vote will be revealed on May 22, with no site receiving more than $250,000. Bartow-Pell’s request for a $155,000 grant is a significant amount to the museum, representing roughly half of its annual operating budget. After the top four sites are selected, the votes of the remaining candidates will be reviewed along with each site’s monetary and preservation needs to determine how the balance of the $3 million in grants will be awarded.

Bartow-Pell is located at 895 Shore Road, Pelham Bay Park, Bronx, New York.  For more information and directions, see www.bpmm.org or www.beautyinthebronx.org.

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