What a Month!

These are tough times for all our mansion family. The resident tenants, the Wamsutta Club, its members as well as the staff and the Glass Museum. I am confident we will all get through these tough times and look forward to seeing you all at the Mansion.

We have been hard at work making the mansion safe for all who visit. We have cleaned and disinfected the building from top to bottom. All four floors have been cleaned and cleared of any unwanted items.

The main dining room chandeliers, north lounge, and grill lights and lamps have been washed and cleaned. The main dining room will be painted around the first week of April, the carpet will be removed and floor will be refinished and ready for parties with a fresh new look.

We are redoing the bathroom in the lower level that houses the Glass Museum as well as removed the carpeting on the stairs. The Glass Museum is scheduled to open on May 30th.

The Mansion Board, as well as the staff, cares about your health and safety. We are dedicated to ensuring your visit to our Mansion is safe and secure. We have installed a monitoring surveillance system, upgraded the fire alarm system, and new lighting to ensure your visits are safe. We will continue to look for ways to ensure our visitors are secure.

I would like to thank Ray, Shannon, and Sheena for stepping up and helping us clean the mansion. These are tough times but they have shown how working together we can make them better for all of us.  Thank you.

The Roaring 20s are now here, once again.

We are planning a ROARING Twenties reception on June 20th. It will be a blast. Look for upcoming posters and ads. The tickets are available now. They will be $40.00 per person. SEE DETAILS / BUY TICKETS

Adopt-a-Drawing

The Adopt-a-Drawing appeal has already received $4,000 in tax-deductible cash and pledge donations toward the restoration of our collection of historically important drawings tracing the evolution of the building.

The first three drawings are in Andover MA at the North East Document Conservation Center and are about 50% of the way through the Conservation process. Once this work is finished, they will be sent to the Imaging department of where digital files will be made along with full-size color prints for our use while the originals will be protected and available for archival reference at the Mansion. There are “Before” photos as well and we shall make a before and after display once the package of these three is returned to the Mansion – expected sometime in March.

Once again, we invite Wamsutta Club Members and friends of the James Arnold Mansion to Adopt-a-Drawing so that we can properly restore more of these irreplaceable records of the Mansion’s history and put them on display. Tax-deductible checks should be made payable to the James Arnold Mansion noting Adopt-a-Drawing in the Memo line.

Adopt-a-Tree:

Two years ago, the Mansion’s first Adopt-a-Tree appeal was successfully responded to by Wamsutta Club members, and, with the expert care of Bartlett Tree, we were able to take care of our Tree Collection by trimming, nourishing, and mulching all of them.

As things whose lives we wish to extend, our historic trees require periodic maintenance and care and so, we again ask for your support in setting up an Arnold Tree Maintenance Fund. An annual reserve of $3,000 will enable us to ensure professional care when needed. And so, we invite your generosity of an annual amount of any size. For example, if 50 supporters each contributed $60, we would be there. Tax-deductible checks should be made payable to the James Arnold Mansion noting Arnold Tree Fund in the Memo line.

A reminder of other things we are doing:

Out on a Limb:
Out on a Limb, an Open Committee of the James Arnold Mansion, members are a wide range of New Bedford residents dedicated to preserving and enhancing our urban forest by raising awareness of the significance, beauty, heritage, and needs of New Bedford’s public and private tree population. You can find us on FaceBook.

The monthly Trees of New Bedford series appearing since Arbor Day 2019 on the third or fourth Sunday of the month in the Standard-Times was brought to you by Out on a Limb.

Unfortunately, the Standard-Times has discontinued the section of the paper that published the articles. Out on a Limb Committee is looking at other venues to continue these articles including the James Arnold web page.
Charitable contributions are welcome and support the monthly articles and other tree-related activities. Tax-deductible checks of any size may be made payable to the James Arnold Mansion noting Out on a Limb in the Memo line.

If you know of a remarkable New Bedford tree, please let us know about it and its location. Please send a photo of the tree and its address to: outonalimb@jamesarnoldmansion.com

Until next month please take care and stay well,
Richard Asquino
President, James Arnold Mansion, Inc.