经济学人480:历史房屋博物馆 联邦资助山穷水尽 匠心独具柳暗花明

 　　Historic-house museums

　　历史房屋博物馆
　　Keeping up appearances
　　永葆“青春”
　　When federal money runs out, ingenuity 1 is called for
　　联邦资助山穷水尽，匠心独具柳暗花明
　　“THE past is never dead. It's not even past,” wrote William Faulkner in “Requiem for a Nun”. In his house, Rowan Oak, you can almost touch the typewriter on which he tapped out those words. It sits on a desk in his study, protected merely by a rope across the door.
　　威廉福克纳在《修女的安魂曲》一书中写到“逝者不殁，实未曾逝也。”在其故居“花楸橡树”，你甚至可以亲手抚摸当年他打出这些文字的打字机，它伫在书房的写字台上。
　　历史房屋博物馆.jpg
　　Rowan Oak stands in a glade 2 near the centre of Oxford 3, Mississippi. Faded signs and keen volunteers direct visitors round the property in which the writer lived for 32 years. Wonky floors, spartan 4 bedrooms and the author's pipe, boots and spectacles await them. Those who forget the cash for the $5 entry fee can squeeze inside anyway with the promise of a cheque to follow. After all, as Faulkner noted 5, “Money has no value. It is just how you spend it.”
　　“花楸橡树”位于距离密西西比的牛津市中心不远的一块沼泽上，此处，根据褪色的标牌和热心的志愿者的指引，你可以游览这所作家曾生活过32年的居所。这里地板嘎吱作响，床铺简单朴素，作家的烟斗，长靴和眼镜安之若素，那些忘记付5块门票的人，保证之后补上一张支票，也可挤入人群探个究竟，“金本无利，使之得力，方才有益”福克纳所言极是。
　　But Rowan Oak needs more spending. Though it was restored in 2005 at a cost of $1.5m, more than a third of which was covered by the University of Mississippi, which owns the site, the house now “needs a paint job really badly”, according to its curator, William Griffith. In addition to maintenance, however, the fees collected from around 30,000 visitors a year have to pay the electricity and phone bills. “It's a tough business,” he admits.
　　但门票费远不能维系“花楸橡树”的维护开支，虽然2005维修的150万美元费用有三分之一都由密西西比大学负担，毕竟地产在该大学名下，但据管理者所言威廉所言，“它现在亟需油漆粉刷”。除维护外，每年从三万游客身上收取的一部分费用还要用于支付电费和电话费，威廉也承认“这笔收入着实难以为继”。
　　Securing sufficient funds to keep historic sites up to scratch is tricky 6 across the South. Almost a third of Rowan Oak's renovations were paid for by Save America's Treasures, a competitive grants programme started in the Clinton years. Congress's decision in 2011 to stop funding the programme has hurt house museums most, according to Stephanie Meeks, head of the National Trust for Historic Preservation 7, a private charity. “It was the only bricks-and-mortar funding scheme run by the federal government,” she says.
　　纵观整个南部地区，想要确保历史遗迹的修缮费用充足都不容易，虽然之前'花楸橡树‘三分之一的修缮费用都来自保护美国遗产组织，它实力雄厚，但2011年国会已决定停止资助这个始于克林顿时代的赠款项目，据私有慈善组织国家历史建筑保护信托负责人所言，房屋博物馆深受其害，毕竟那是唯一一个受联邦政府资助的实体项目。”
　　And keeping crumbling 8 old buildings together is expensive. Around $12m in the past four years has gone on maintaining 26 historic sites across America run by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “It's tremendous work to keep these places looking nice,” says Toby Aldridge, the resident guide at the childhood house museum of another great southern writer, Flannery O'Connor. But renovations in 2007 have improved visitor numbers since, he says, and a student helped with the paint analysis for the green-and-gold living room. So far this year more than 2,600 people have come, already more than in 2013. The author's childhood books, such as “Five Little Peppers and How they Grew”, are on display—a far cry from the raw rural tales O'Connor would write herself.
　　但维修这些摇摇欲坠的房屋开支不菲，国家历史建筑保护信托负责的26处遗迹维修在过去四年里花了将近1200万美元，另一个南部作家弗兰纳里奥康纳的童年故居负责人托比说，让这些地方看上去光鲜亮丽真不是一项小工程，但2007年的修缮工作之后，游客数量确实增加了，同时一个学生也在帮忙规划金绿色客厅的粉刷工作。今年的游客数量已达到2600人，比2013年多，一些作家童年读的书如“Five Little Peppers and How they Grew”也在这里展出，他们与奥康纳写的乡村故事迥然不同。
　　Andalusia Farm, near Milledgeville, was O'Connor's home when she wrote most of her stories. The museum that is now there once got money from Save America's Treasures, but now uses timber from its 544-acre (220-hectare) estate for repairs to keep costs down. It also depends on donations from individuals to cover its $220,000 operating budget each year. The farm's director, Elizabeth Wylie, has expanded an annual bluegrass festival at the site, started a supper club and opened a reading room to try to attract more locals. “Innovation is the watchword,” she says.
　　米利齐威尔附近的Andalusia农庄便是奥康纳的家，她在这里完成了大部分著作，这一所博物馆过去也受到保护美国遗产协会的资助，但现在只能指望来自它554英亩房产里的木材进行修缮，同时它也接收私人捐款，来负担每年22万的预算，农场主伊丽莎白在原址上扩大了蓝绿茎牧草节的规模，建立了晚宴团体，开设读书室，吸引当地人，她说“创新才是硬道理.
　　Ms Meeks agrees. The greatest threat to house museums is other house museums, she says—especially as America has around 15,000 of them. Her organisation 9 is exploring partnerships 10 with restaurants and shops at certain sites as a way to find extra income and draw more visitors. But private philanthropists help most. A recent $10m gift for Montpelier, the estate where President James Madison lived in Virginia, will pay for, among other things, rebuilding the site's slave quarters. Other houses are less fortunate in their friends. At Rowan Oak, “We barely make it, but we do make it—just like Faulkner,” Mr Griffith says.
　　米克对此也同意，她说，房屋博物馆同业之间的竞争最为剧烈，他的组织正尝试与一些餐厅店铺形成合作伙伴关系，以赢得更丰厚的收入，吸引更多旅客，但是私有的慈善机构还是最有力的合作伙伴，詹姆斯麦迪森在弗吉尼亚的住所最近也迎来了一笔1000万美元的援助，主要将用于重建，但相比之下，其他的一些居所便没那么幸运。至于花楸橡树，威廉说，我们艰难困苦，但将竭尽全力。