Drake House steps up to accessibility issue

The old stoop is being replaced with a spacious porch
and accessibility ramp.

As we all know, in Plainfield nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Take the capital improvements at the Drake House, the city-owned historic house and museum.

Stopping by to snap some pix of the lilacs blooming in the dooryard, I got a chance for a closeup peek at the new porch and ADA-compliant accessibility ramp being installed along the front of the house.

Visitors will no longer have to queue up on a tiny, postage-stamp sized stoop to get in the front door when popular exhibits open. Nor will those with special accessibility needs have to figure out how they're going to get in the museum -- the gently sloping ramp will address that issue (however, there will still be those daunting stairs to the second-floor gallery).

The porch renovations are part of a long-term capital improvements program, the gathering of funds for which began under during Jean Mattson's term as president of the Historical Society. Prior work done included updates to the heating system and installation of unobtrusive air conditioning as well as electrical upgrades.

Here is a good view of the ADA-compliant ramp.

Chatting up a board member at a party the other evening, I learned that the Historical Society, which manages and operates the Drake House Museum under a lease from the city, is looking for monies to match the $52,000 'Preserve Union County' grant received from the Freeholders as part of Union County's Open Space Trust Fund.

That match was a condition of the original grant made last fall, but no one is quite sure how the Historical Society got the grant without the match being in place, as is usually required by grantors.

April's agenda-setting session of the City Council had an item for a presentation/discussion on the Drake House, but no one from the Historical Society appeared, so there was no discussion.

From a query to a Council member, I learned that there are discussions ongoing about whether and how to fund the matching amount, but they are not yet resolved.

At the same time, I learned that the city's long-term lease with the Historical Society to operate the Drake House has expired, and will be the subject of a review -- with an eye to possible revisions to update it -- over the coming months.

All this because I stopped by on a sunny afternoon to take a snapshot.

That's life in Plainfield.

A snapshot of the lilacs that started it all.
(That is not a helicopter, it is a bee -- as caught by my cellphone camera.)

A bright red sign alerts passersby to
Plainfield's Drake House Museum.

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.