Set new records in a wide array of areas including:

Total earned revenue of $117,805!

Regular Daytime Tours

• Record total tour revenue of $48,701.

• Record number of senior guests (65 and older) up 22%, child guests, and groups tours (up 158%). All three were targeted for increases.

Special Events

• Sequential Killers performances set a revenue record of $19,090 with almost 900 guests in attendance.

• Mystery at the Museum saw records in terms of both guests (161) and revenue ($12,075).

• Nooks and Crannies tours saw records in terms of both guests (141) and revenue ($2115).

• Horrors of the Household tours saw records in terms of both guests (204) and revenue ($3060).

• How Victorians Invented Christmas tours saw records in terms of both guests (208) and revenue ($3110).

Phase Four restoration continued with a total of 53 interior windows (106 individual sashes) restored to date. Only ten interior windows, all on the first floor, remain to be restored.

Exterior storm windows also saw extensive restoration work with a total of 28 restored. Only 18 windows on the first floor remain.

This three year window restoration program, which is finally winding down, is a remarkable testament to the hard work of the artisans and staff who have labored on each and every detail of the task at hand.

Created and installed a summer-long exhibition entitled Cloth and Canvas to celebrate Hearthstone’s remarkable art and historic clothing collections. The exhibit offered side-by-side comparisons of beautiful pieces of clothing with exceptional pieces of Impressionist art, all to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first public showing of Monet’s Impression Sunrise. The exhibition included acclaimed specialty tours.

Continued week-long “Spark Your Imagination” Summer Camps for grade 4-7 students with four sessions including one in Spanish for “English as a Second Language” students.

Expanded college internship program yet again to include over a dozen students from area institutions of higher education including international students from three countries. The program offers real-world experience for those interested in public history and other museum work.

These interns were essential to THE BIG PROJECT which was initiated in the Spring and will continue through 2025 and beyond. Under the direction of Lynne Phillips, the interns began researching, accessioning, and cataloging every one of the 20,000 artifacts in the collection. All information is being stored on-line, giving access to researchers anywhere in the world. THE BIG PROJECT is part of the Recollection Wisconsin Initiative.

Recollection Wisconsin is a collaborative digitization program initiated in 2005 by Wisconsin Library Services, the Wisconsin Historical Society, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It is supported by the Milwaukee Public Library, the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning, and grant funding from the Nicholas Family Foundation.

Our board of directors and staff

Our Board and Staff welcome your questions, comments, thoughts, and suggestions.

Board of Directors

• Clair Cannell, Director and Board Secretary

• Fred Hoida, Director

• Ronell Hubanks, Director

• Laura Ann Kamm, Director and Treasurer

• Antoinette Powell, Director and Board President

Staff

• George M. Schroeder, Executive Director

• Thomas Weiland, Development Director

• Lynne Phillips, Curation Director

• Autumn McCarty, Museum Educator
  

  and, now retired but who will always be considered part of our staff because of her decades of service and profound contributions to the museum…

• Ann Larson, Curator Emerita

Our Founders

Our success at Hearthstone Historic House Museum could never have been accomplished without the vision of our founders - a vision that rivals that of Edison, Rodgers, Waters, and others who built Hearthstone.  At a time when historic preservation was often ignored, these dedicated people came together in 1986 and strove with Edisonian determination to make a difference.  We are eternally indebted to them.