Assessment of the Environmental Conditions of the Dutch and Amstel Houses

FAIN: PG-50196-07

New Castle Historical Society (New Castle, DE 19720)
Rebecca L. Wilson (Project Director: May 2006 to December 2007)

An assessment of environmental conditions and development of a plan to preserve collections of decorative and fine arts, furniture, textiles, and archives stored and displayed in the historical society's Dutch House (c.1692-1701) and Amstel House (1738). Visitors to these historic house museums learn about the colonial history of New Castle, Delaware, and the surrounding area.

The goal of this project is to assess the current environmental conditions of the Amstel and Dutch Houses and to generate a climate control improvement plan to create "ideal" temperature and relative humidity conditions for the collections. Working with the curator, two engineers from Landmark Facilities Group, Inc. will assess conditions in the historic structures and develop a site-specific improvement program to meet the needs of the collections. Based on the analysis, Landmark Facilities Group will issue a final report that will include data analysis, schematic design layouts describing improvements, and an estimate of implementation costs.