The George and Rebecca Barnes Foundation is raising money to preserve the Barnes Hiscock Mansion in Syracuse. The foundation recently gave tours of the home in an effort to bring in enough money to qualify for matching funds.
When you step inside the dining room at the mansion, you’re transported back to the 1880's. Surrounded by mahogany woodwork, mosaic tiles, stained glass windows and murals, one piece of artwork is particularly striking -- a mural that depicts a young black boy with a young white girl.
The piece symbolizes advocacy for abolition, according to Kyle Powlina, a volunteer tour guide and the museum development manager of the Barnes Foundation.
“It's not just a piece of the Barnes and Hiscocks and their descendants. This is for everyone. We're preserving the history of Syracuse,” Powlina says. “Abolition is far removed from just this house. It goes way beyond these walls.”
The Barnes' would meet with abolitionists in their library and the details of anti-slavery conventions were published in the newspaper George Barnes owned. Arlene Stewart is the founder and first president of the Barnes Foundation.
“He took a lot of chances,” Stewart says, speaking about George Barnes. “Anybody that was helping a freedom seeker find their way was treasonous and they would get hung. These people still did it. Even with those kind of warnings they said, 'No, every human being should be free. Period. End of story.”
Stewart says costs are a constant obstacle. It costs about $100,000 a year just to maintain the house, which is on the National Registry of Historic Places. The foundation has set out to raise that same amount, $100,000, in order to receive additional funding from New York state. The roof and the Corinthian-style pillars in the front of the house both need to be restored.
Kristin Earle, executive director of the foundation, helped start an online fundraiser campaign on IndieGoGo.
“Historic preservation is a very hard thing to fundraise for,” Earle says. “But the thing is, you don't get a second chance at it.”
The foundation is also making the home available as a mixed-use facility to raise funds. They hold plays and historical reenactments, lease office space and have rented the house for receptions. The foundation is even working with the city of Syracuse to open a small sandwich shop inside.
