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A preservation assessment, as well as the purchase of environmental monitoring equipment, to develop a plan to improve climate control for the collections at the Travellers Rest Historic House Museum.  Holdings include over 6,000 Southern and Tennessee artifacts such as furniture, paintings, textiles, homewares, and decorative and personal items, many of which belonged to the original home owner, Judge John Overton.  The house and its collections are used to present early nineteenth-century Tennessee history and Judge Overton’s influence in state politics, as well as the political rise of Andrew Jackson.

This project seeks to contract with a consultant to assess the environmental conditions of a historic house museum constructed between 1799-1885. Upon completion of the assessment, a report would be provided outlining recommendations for an HVAC system designed to provide for a proper conservation environment in the house. The system design would take into account the multiple additions of the house built of both brick and wood construction over a hundred-year period with the permeable membrane inherent to a historic structure. The house was home to the Overton family from 1799-1949. Started by Judge John Overton, the historic house grew as the generations grew, until it was donated to The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Tennessee which ran the site as a historic house museum. It also serves as the organization’s state headquarters. For the last thirty years it has been operated by a paid professional staff which ensures it is open to the public.