The Vision

When The Menokin Foundation was founded it was faced with three major questions:

1. How do we best preserve Menokin's remaining fabric?

2. What will be our unique offering or contribution to the world?

3. How can we sustain the Menokin property for the future?

The Foundation believes that a hands-on learning process of putting this architectural "jigsaw puzzle" back together is an important and unique contribution to the field of historic preservation.

We see that presenting and interpreting Menokin through its many parts and pieces rather than through a traditional reconstruction is a valuable contribution to the museum field. The Menokin Foundation also considers the careful management of Menokin's 500 acres to be an
important method of increasing public appreciation for natural resource conservation.

 

Project Impacts

  • This project preserves and interprets Menokin for the nation
    and the world. Until it was acquired by the Foundation,Menokin was the only home of a Virginia signer of the Declaration of
    Independence not secured.
  • The Menokin Project provides a new model for historic
    house museums. A primary tenet of the Foundation's
    mission is to develop innovative scholarship and new
    practices in conservation and share that information withthe museum community. In a January 29, 2008
    Virginian-Pilot article, "A Model for Historic House
    Museums," the authors write, "The time has come to
    think outside the house-tour box and consider new
    paradigms to preserve historic buildings."

 

OUR VISION: To provide at Menokin an internationally recognized learning center for heritage and natural resource conservation through innovative
practices and technology.

 

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