Treatment Philosophy

During the period of significance (18711967) Bassett Farms served as the heart of a community of people that lived closely with the landscape that supported their livelihoods and life experiences. Echoes of that heartbeat remain and are gaining strength with Preservation Texas’s purchase and management of the Bassett Farms Conservancy. Bassett Farms served its immediate community in the past; Bassett Farms Conservancy will serve the local, regional, and national community in the future with a vision that includes making Bassett Farms a center for learning, education, and events that highlight and reveal the unique layers of history this place possesses. The stories are local but tap into national trends and events that upon revelation help connect the American story to this landscape.

Preservation, Conservation, Education. Bassett Farms will be developed as the largest preservation and conservation skills training center in the country.1

This large, historic rural landscape will be conserved, its historic resources preserved, and its diverse history studied, interpreted, and shared as part of a wide-ranging educational program in support of Preservation Texas’ mission.2 characterize the layered history of human use, centered on domestic life, agricultural use, seeking and acting on new opportunities, and confronting challenges.

Goal 2: Provide flexibility that allows modest degrees of change to address contemporary needs and activities while staying true to the historic character of the cultural landscape.

Goal 3: Balance the preservation of historic, cultural, and natural resources which combined tell the wider story of this landscape since time immemorial.

Goal 4: Seek opportunities to reveal the interconnected nature of the landscape to the people, and the people to each other, in making a life here: the triumphs and the tragedies.

Goal 5: Seek opportunities to frame national stories and events through the lives of the people who lived and worked at Bassett Farms, and the events that shaped this cultural landscape.

Goal 6: Illuminate the methods and practices of cultural landscape preservation using Bassett Farms as an outdoor classroom and laboratory to help fulfill the mission of Bassett Farms Conservancy “Cultivating the Field of Preservation.”

Goal 1: When and where possible maintain and prioritize historic uses of Bassett Farms which

1 https://www.bassettfarms.org/

2 https://www.bassettfarms.org/about