Sept. 29: This week, two New Hampshire projects will be recognized by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as model success stories: the rescue and revitalization of the Wentworth by the Sea and conservation and preservation of the Randall and Tuckaway Farms in Lee. The New Hampshire projects are two of only five selected in a national competition.

Etoile Holzaepfel, president of Friends of the Wentworth, the non-profit group whose 11-year advocacy effort helped save the hotel, will present a "3-Minute Success Story" at the Trust's Preservation Partners luncheon in Denver, Colorado on September 30th. The story of the Randall Farm and Tuckaway Farm preservation effort will be described by Rachel Rouillard, executive director of the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP). LCHIP was a major catalyst for the farm preservation success.

The new publication, Restoring Women's History through Historic Preservation (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), by New Hampshire Preservation Alliance's executive director Jennifer Goodman, will be highlighted during the conference. The New Hampshire Preservation Alliance's leadership in establishing the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program was showcased in 2000 and its barn preservation program was recognized in 2001.

"New Hampshire has been at the forefront of preservation in many ways in recent years. The National Trust is pleased to highlight some recent achievements this year during the upcoming National Preservation Conference as 'best practices' for other states and communities to emulate," said Wendy Nicholas, director of the Northeast Regional Office of the National Trust. "While the Trust is deeply troubled by the New Hampshire
legislature's recent evisceration of the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program, the program as originally adopted is an excellent model for state investment in conservation of its open space and historic landmarks."

Wentworth by the Sea Hotel, New Castle
Wentworth By the Sea reopened in May 2003 as a 161-room, four-star hotel, the only seaside resort in New Hampshire. Named to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's "11 Most Endangered Sites" list in 1996, the hotel was saved from the wrecking ball by a coalition led by the non-profit advocacy group Friends of the Wentworth, along with former New Hampshire state legislator and preservation advocate Martha Fuller Clark, former governor Jeanne Shaheen, state senator Burt Cohen, and the National Trust. Ocean Properties Limited is the owner/developer who bought the hotel in 1997, and TMS Architects and Courtcon, Inc. were leaders of the restoration team.
The Wentworth by the Sea (photo: W. Garrett Scholes)
The hotel is historically significant, both as a classic representation of the grand resort hotel of the late 19th century and because the Russian and Japanese delegations who wrote the Treaty of Portsmouth ending the Russo-Japanese War were guests during the 1905 negotiation process. Working with only the shell of the original core wood building and its three distinctive Victorian turret towers, Ocean Properties has added a conference wing and a Spa wing, both with guestrooms above, to complement the restored lobby, ballroom, and dining room with its c. 1905 hand-painted ceiling mural.

Randall and Tuckaway Farms, Lee
The Randall and Tuckaway Farms' historic structures and land were protected with an easement through a partnership between the owners, LCHIP, the Lee Conservation Commission, Lee Historical Society and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services in 2003. Threatened by seacoast development pressure, $2.3 million was raised in about one year to conserve 623 acres of farm and forest land (that overlays an important water supply) as well as a historic farmhouse, bicentennial barn, family cemetery and other historic outbuildings. The conservation project served as a catalyst for the donation of land by 15 neighbors and the development of a historic district commission.