Efforts to preserve artist Henry Varnum Poor's house stall

Clarkstown, New York

THE rambling stone cottage here where the artist Henry Varnum Poor created his ceramics and his paintings and other artworks now held at major museums around the country is called Crow House, perhaps because that may have been the type of bird that circled overhead when Poor designed and built it, by hand, nearly 100 years ago.

Seven years ago, town leaders in nearby Ramapo decided to pay US$1.3 million for the property, with plans to create a cultural centre to honour Poor and maintain the two-storey house as it was when the artist lived and worked there. That plan has stalled, however, and the physical condition of the house has deteriorated, along with the relationship between Ramapo town officials and preservationists, who fear that a significant structure may be compromised beyond repair.