Historic Cherry Hill
Mission
Historic Cherry Hill encourages the public to connect emotionally with one Albany family's response to change, in order to gain critical perspective on the past and present.
The museum accomplishes its mission by developing engaging programs and publications based on the site's amazingly intact collections of 20,000 objects, 30,000 manuscripts, 7,500 textiles, 5,000 books and 3,000 photographs.
Built in 1787, Cherry Hill was lived in continuously by five generations of the Van Rensselaer family until 1963. Since the family's initial ownership, Cherry Hill has been, and continues to be part of a significantly changing community. Changes to the house and in the lives of each succeeding generation reflect the broader community well. The museum opened to the public in 1964, and in the early years, the Trustees, with the guidance of museum professionals, adopted a "preservation site" philosophy for the care and interpretation of the house. This philosophy embraced the idea that the house be left as it was given--as a twentieth century home which reflects the changes and continuities of 176 years of family occupancy in an ever-evolving community.
Historic Cherry Hill was provisionally chartered by the New York State Education Department in 1964; its Absolute Charter was granted in 1969. The house was listed on the National Register in 1971, and the museum first achieved Accreditation by the American Association of Museums (AAM) in 1984.
Throughout its history, HCH has continued to strengthen its commitment to its mission of preservation, research and interpretation. The staff now includes three full-time professionals, six part-time support personnel, and 50 volunteers from throughout the Capital Region. Through institution-wide efforts, HCH has received local, regional and national recognition for its volunteer and education programs, exhibits and publications.
In recent years, the museum has published a highly acclaimed 4th grade educational teaching unit (the publication won an Award of Merit from the American Association for State & Local History), built a 3,500 square foot collections care and research facility, and developed a tour called "The Rankins of Cherry Hill: Struggling with the Loss of Their World," reviewed in the Journal of American History.
[top]