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Tallman's turning point?

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Lincoln-Tallman House

The Janesville City Council recently whittled 12 percent off the $65,300 subsidy proposed for 2008 for the Rock County Historical Society, which operates the Tallman House.

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JANESVILLE — Evergreen trees glisten with ornaments. The dining table is set for guests, who might nibble from a tiered centerpiece laden with fruit and flowing red ribbons.

A mannequin couple, one wearing a Civil War uniform and the other a “going out” dress, wait to be greeted in the drawing room.

It’s Christmastime at the Tallman House, and the 1850s mansion has never looked finer.

Yet underneath the glad tidings is a nagging concern: How many more Christmases does the Tallman House have?

The holidays are a busy time for Janesville’s best-known house museum. Many visitors will walk through the Italianate house, admiring the Christmas trees, the original furniture and the guest room where Abraham Lincoln slept.

The problem is money.

The financial picture

City budgets are tightening under state-imposed tax levy limits. The Janesville City Council recently whittled 12 percent off the $65,300 subsidy proposed for 2008 for the Rock County Historical Society, which operates the Tallman House.

By 2009, City Manager Steve Sheiffer warned, that subsidy probably will be gone.

The subsidy is about 30 percent of the historical society’s yearly budget. It pays for the docents, utilities and a percentage of the executive director’s salary, said Pat Thom, president of the society’s board of directors.

News that the subsidy might disappear took the historical society by surprise.

The Tallman Trust donated the Tallman House to the city in 1950 with the understanding that the city would run it as a museum. If the city couldn’t, the property would return to the trust.

“If you’re in a lease with someone for 50 years, you don’t assume they’re going to drop the lease,” said Madge Murphy, executive director of the historical society.

“There was no reason to see this coming,” Thom said. “According to the will, the city owns it and continues to run it” until the city decides not to do so.

“Until that (decision) happens, there was no reason to believe otherwise.”

Annual expenses aren’t the only concern.

Long term, the Tallman House needs about $500,000 worth of exterior work, including tuck pointing, painting, roof and side porch repairs, and trim work. Structural deficiencies in the carriage house also need to be fixed.

In October, Murphy hinted that a capital campaign could begin next fall. Thom said that’s a possibility, but some questions need to be answered first.

“Until we know where we stand with the city, with the community, I’m not ready to commit to a capital campaign,” Thom said. “It’s certainly a possibility.

“I think the city needs to step up and do their share. It shouldn’t fall all on our shoulders.”

Meanwhile, the lease agreement between the city and historical society expires Dec. 31. The city council will review a one-year extension when it meets Monday, Dec. 10.

The future

Although the future is uncertain, many people see this as a pivotal time for the Tallman House.

“I think this is a turning point for everyone,” Thom said. “I think it’s a time to reassess … what we want the museum to be. I think once we find that out, we can go ahead regardless.

“We’re (the historical society) not going away. But I just hope we get the support, not just from the city, but the citizens of Janesville.”

Murphy believes the support is out there.

Growing up in Janesville, she remembers touring the Tallman House with other third-graders. She knows other people remember, too, but these days they might drive by the historical mansion without really seeing it.

The Tallman House has changed, Murphy said. It now contains up to 80 percent of its original furniture, and the Victorian-era carpets are restored. Decorations change with the seasons: Summer visitors saw a patriotic theme.

Even Christmas is different this year. Period clothing is on display throughout the house. Gail Fitzgerald, who once worked at Floral Expressions, lent a hand with decorations, adding ribbons, crystallized fruit, garlands and other extras to make the rooms pop.

“Our main goal this year is making it look lived in,” docent Tina Love said.

Thom admits that tour attendance figures—5,100 people so far this year—are too low. Maybe that’s because people take the Tallman House for granted, she said.

“It’s one of those things that people think if they’ve been there once, they’ve seen it,” Thom said. “It’s a living entity. It deserves revisits.”

Murphy foresees a lot of long-range planning and creative thinking in the next year.

Meetings with Tallman Trust representatives will be set up. Suggestions on ways to promote the Tallman House and make it more engaging will be needed. More fund raising will be important; a capital campaign is possible, although not right away.

Murphy said she hasn’t given up on the city’s help.

“I don’t see that as being a closed door,” she said.

But tight budgets aren’t going away. City council member Paul Williams, himself a preservationist, said the city, the trust and the historical society need to discuss how the Tallman House can become self-sustaining.

A feasibility study would be a good start, he said.

Williams and his wife, Mary, are helping to preserve the Saxonia House, a historic site near West Bend. After months of brainstorming, their group seized on the idea of raising money through retreats at the house.

The trick is balancing financial goals with the need to keep the site undamaged.

“It’s not a simple answer,” Williams said.

Those are the kinds of suggestions Murphy wants to hear. She said the historical society plans to reach out to residents and the business community for ideas over the next year.

Without the Tallman House, Janesville has one less attraction to draw visitors, said Christine Rebout, executive director of the Janesville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“If the Tallman House went away, I’d have other things (to promote), but I don’t know if I have enough to be a sustainable destination,” Rebout said.

Residents who want to keep the Tallman House open need to speak out, Murphy said. They also need to make regular visits.

“When you’re in that house two or three times, you get possessive of it,” Murphy said. “It can never come back once it’s gone.”

Tour attendance

2003: 4,722

2004: 4,525

2005: 5,095

2006: 4,206

2007: 5,100+

Tours and events

Holiday tours of the Tallman House will be offered between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. through Sunday, Dec. 30. All tours begin at the Helen Jeffris Wood Museum Center, 426 N. Jackson St., Janesville. Admission is $8 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and $4 for K-12 students.

A Town Hall Christmas & Winter Holidays Celebration, a fund-raiser for the Rock County Historical Society, will kick off at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8, at the Janesville Performing Arts Center, 408 S. Main St. Tickets cost $7 per person for $25 per family of up to six people.

Tickets are available at these Janesville locations: the Rock County Historical Society, 426 N. Jackson St.; Knapton Musik Knotes, 2505 Woodlane Road; Voigt Music, 1401 W. Court St., and JPAC, 408 S. Main St.

Tickets also will be sold at Voigt Music, 1712 Cranston Road, Beloit, and Books & Brew, 613 W. Madison St., Milton.