‘Cultural Tourism’ Touted

At Tin Top Ribbon-Cutting

HYDE HALL

At a time when the state was focused on the recreational value of parks, the Friends of Hyde Hall “came to the rescue of the house,” Ruth Pierpont, deputy commissioner of the state Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation told this morning’s gathering to dedicate a just-completed welcome center in the mansion’s Tin Top gatehouse.

The Friends established a model for public-private partnerships that has been duplicated elsewhere, said Pierpont, adding, “Without this partnership, which began over 50 years ago, we would not have Hyde Hall as an architecturally and historically significant piece of our heritage or as an important component of tourism in the region.”

State Sen. Jim Seward, R-Milford, who had obtained a $250,000 grant for the renovation, recalled that one of his first pieces of legislation on being elected in 1986-87 granted the Friends a “long term lease” on the property, so they could plan renovations with some confidence.

Since then, Seward said, tourism advocates have come to understand “culture equals cash,” and “cultural tourism has emerged as a very important part of the tourism industry.”  In recent summers, Hyde Hall has been collaborated with the NYSHA museums and the Glimmerglass Festival, hosting programs on the shores of Hyde Bay.

The gatehouse, originally on East Lake Road just north of the present entrance to Glimmerglass State Park, was moved to its current location, next to the mansion, decades ago.  Tin Top was stabilized in 2012 by an earlier grant, but Seward said he recognized at that time that the structure needed further upgrading.

The renovations that were dedicated prior to a ribbon-cutting today will allow tours of the 1817 building to begin at Tin Top.  There is a room where visitors can wait in bad weather, and also a kitchen so receptions can be held there.

The ribbon-cutting preceded an afternoon-long celebration of Mothers’ Day, including a tea, a presentation on the newly rewoven stair carpets, and madrigals by Angelica Palmer & Friends, (the friends including Quinn Bernegger, CCS 2010, who has been studying voice with an opera career in mind.)