In 1819,
Walt Whitman, widely recognized as America's greatest poet, was born in a small
farmhouse in the rural Long Island community of West Hills in the town of
Huntington. Despite Whitman’s prominence, his family’s house faced the
continual threat of suburban encroachment. In 1949, Walt Whitman Birthplace
Association was established to preserve his birthplace. Poets, authors,
professors, businesspeople, and concerned citizens were among its founding
members.
To help
raise awareness and funds to protect the farmhouse, WWBA appealed to Alicia
Patterson, the owner and publisher of Newsday.
Patterson featured Whitman and the plight of his farmhouse on the cover of the
newspaper and launched a fundraising campaign that inspired students across
Long Island to collect for the cause. After three months, the Association
purchased the property. In 1957, WWBA was successful in its petition to
Governor Harriman to designate the birthplace a New York State Historic Site.
In 1985, the property was listed on the NYS and National Registers of Historic
Places.
Up until
1986, WWBA managed the site on a small scale with limited visitation and public
programming. WWBA’s executive director Barbara Mazor Bart convinced the Association’s
board to promote the site as a center of learning and to make it more
accessible to the public. The site’s educational programs were inaugurated in
1987. Among its various offerings, one of the site’s most successful
initiatives is the annual student poetry contest, which receives 5,000 entries
each year.
Each year,
WWBA’s Board of Trustees selects a nationally recognized poet to be its
Poet-in-Residence. From public readings of his or her own poetry to teaching
master writing classes, these guest poets are helping to instruct and inspire
the next generation of writers. WWBA maintains a library of approximately 1,800
volumes at the site, which focuses on the poetry and life of Walt Whitman and
includes an original edition of Leaves of Grass.
In the
1990s, to help accommodate the site’s increased visitation and expanding
programs, the Association in partnership with OPRHP, planned an Interpretive
Center at the site. The center opened in 1997 and provides space
for a classroom, library, offices, gift shop, and collections storage as well
as providing handicapped accessible bathrooms. Through the initiative of WWBA
and the leadership of OPRHP Commissioner Bernadette Castro, a comprehensive
restoration of the Birthplace was undertaken for the first time in 43 years. The
restoration was completed in 2000.
In
addition, PIRC staff developed a new furnishing plan for the house in
collaboration with WWBA curator Richard Ryan. The plan reflects the agrarian
lifestyle of the Whitman family between 1816 and 1823. Almost half of the
site’s collection (about 200 objects) is on display in the house. In 2005, the barn was renovated and its original wood was used as floorboards for the new
structure, named the Gathering House. This structure was dedicated in November
of 2005. It is utilized as an environmental education classroom, exhibit space,
and small meetings.
In 2007,
Cynthia Shor was selected by the Board of Trustees as executive director. She
initiated the first Walt Whitman Family Reunion in 2008 with the intention of
locating descendants, making an oral history documentary of family members, and
mounting an exhibit of family artifacts relating to Walt Whitman.
Source:
About, www.waltwhitman.org/about/about-wwba
