Submitted by Russ Grills
In 1968, the historic but deteriorating estate of John Lincklaen, Cazenovia’s founder, was purchased by The New York State Historic Trust. The newly founded group, used proceeds of from funds dedicated for the purchase of historic properties and sponsored by State Senator John Hughes. Trust president, Dr. Louis C. Jones, described Lorenzo as “a kitchen Midden” of cultural and historical treasures.
To maintain the property, the Trust retained the estate grounds keeper, Benton Block, to oversee the property 12 hours a week (he probably worked 50 hours). The first professional employees were recent graduates of the Cooperstown Graduate Programs museum studies course, Peter and Aileen Stevenson. Their six-month contract called for them to scope the depth of collection and make recommendations. As fellow classmates and close friends, my wife, Susie, and I had the privilege of visiting Lorenzo in the summer of 1969. We were wowed by the depth and breadth of the collections.
Invited by the president to visit Vietnam for a year and heading a multi-site local museum. Lorenzo became a pleasant memory for me. In the meantime, The New York State Historic Trust failed in its mission to raise adequate funding and its properties were folded in to the New York State Parks and Recreation office as its new Division of Historic Preservation.
In 1973, still without budget or staffing, the assistant commissioner of historic preservation, Frederick Rath, hired me as the first site manger (now director). Now with a staff of one but no budget we began our work. Within a few Months I added three temporary assistants began to organized the collections.
Staffing, the first victim of austerity, gradually stabilized and made progress in visitor service and programs. Even today, replacing vital staff still happens all too slowly.
Lorenzo would not be what it is today were it not for its volunteers. In 1974, less than year after I arrived, a state convention of the Daughters of the American Revolution asked to visit the property. Happily, my one assistant had many friends in town and suddenly we had a dozen volunteer guides to shepherd several hundred ladies around the house. Since many of these visitors knew more about the collections than my guides did, it was a great learning experience for them and they quickly became the seed of the ongoing docent corps.
Volunteer activities grew in 1975 when the Friends of Lorenzo was chartered to provide programming and fund-raising over the ensuing 40 years, continuing to be an ever more important part of the Lorenzo family.
I retired at the beginning of 2002 and Lorenzo is now headed by its third director, Michael Roets. With many in-house services gone, maintenance and other specialized skills now must be contracted out. The raising of private funds will become more and more vital in the future. The Friends have supported our excellent gardener, Janine Golub, for 34 years. Other positions may require private to support them in the future. I have watched the Friends of Lorenzo mature over its 43-year history and think it is up to the challenge.
Lorenzo has become a permanent feature in our community. Long may it continue.
