The future Oscar Hammerstein Museum receives a second $500k grant from the state
Funds will be used to build a visitor and education center at the Doylestown farmhouse once owned by the famed librettist.
Following years of fundraising and planned development, the future Oscar Hammerstein Museum and Theatre Education Center has received a $500,000 grant from the state of Pennsylvania.
The museum is dedicated to the famed librettist, who spent 20 years at the 18th-century farmhouse called Highland Farm, penning theatrical hits like Oklahoma!, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. “This is where he felt at home,” his grandson Will Hammerstein said in a 2023 interview with The Inquirer.
A nonprofit group purchased the Doylestown property in Dec. 2023, with hopes of restoring and preserving Hammerstein’s former home. The Museum has received gifts from notable philanthropists and supporters, including Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda’s family fund which bequeathed an undisclosed “major gift” to the nonprofit seeking to restore and preserve Highland Farm, in April 2023.
The latest Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant is the second $500,000 grant awarded to the Museum by the state in four years.
The first RACP grant was in 2020, with funding going toward buying the property and performing early maintenance, including the installation of a security system.
According to the state website, RACP grants are awarded to projects totaling at least $1 million. Applicants are also required to secure at least 50% of the funding through independent, non-state grants, with the state agency matching the sum. Consideration is also given to projects that will boost employment, tax revenues, and other economic activity, and impact communities in surrounding regions or “multi-jurisdictional” areas.
According to WHYY, the RACP grant money will be used to replace a worn barn with a visitor and education center on the property. Museum board secretary Christine Junker said that fundraising, construction, and added land development could take at least three years, WHYY reported.
As renovations on the Highland Farm property take place, the farmhouse will be open for limited guided tours.
Hammerstein purchased Highland Farm with his wife Dorothy in 1940 for $23,000. He moved there from New York City to avoid disrupted meetings, telephone calls, and visits. And to immerse himself in his work as a lyricist and librettist.
The Bucks County property is where Hammerstein raised cattle and forged a musical partnership with Richard Rodgers, with whom he transformed American theater.
Hammerstein died at the farmhouse in 1960, after battling stomach cancer. The three-story home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, and has operated as a bed and breakfast in the past.