Where Most Needed

A tiny home in Milwaukee illustrates the dilemma of nonprofit preservationists.  In late 2004, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on the purchase of Frank Lloyd Wright gem: an American System home built designed by Wright for working-class families.  Milwaukee has the only remaining neighborhood in the US that retains a cluster of such homes (in varying degrees of preservation & alteration).  The 900 square foot home sold for around 5,000 in 1916, but the preservation group now known as Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin Heritage Tourism Program Inc. (EIN 39-1765073 Form 990) paid $130,000 for it. 

A year and a half later, here's another article about the progress on the site.  There's a caretaker living there, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (state run, no Form 990), whose Historic Preservation Institute has taken an interest in the home.   There's even a video walk through of the property.

The preservation group is applying for a $379,000 grant from Save America's Treasures (Federal program, no Form 990).  The article mentions that the group is looking for a certain amount of additional funding, which is consistent with the matching requirement mentioned in the program web site. 

So the cost of preservation is already well past $509,000, not counting the free services provided by the University.  Historically accurate restoration is costly: here it's running over $400 per square foot.

Even more problematic is what to do with the property once the restoration work is done.  While the article mentions using the house as a museum, it is difficult to see a 900 square foot home as a museum in a residential area.

This just shows what preservationists are up against.  Small nonprofit organizations don't have the resources to pay what it takes.  Only the assistance of a major university makes it possible to conceive of such a restoration.