Bicentennial Infrastructure Project

The Bicentennial Infrastructure Project is well underway with grates and shutters removed from the Taft historic house, siding being restored, and more. 

The Taft Museum of Art has carefully moved over 500 artworks from our permanent collection in the historic house into their temporary homes, which includes two special bicentennial exhibitions.

Beginning in June 2021, portions of the permanent collection will be placed in storage as part of this intensive and invasive preservation. By August, the historic home will be temporarily inaccessible to museum visitors and members.

At the turn of the 20th century, few art collectors in Cincinnati shared the passion and determination of Charles Phelps Taft and Anna Sinton Taft.

Anna Sinton Taft, the cofounder of the Taft Museum of Art, is undoubtedly the best-known woman to have lived in the Taft historic house. Most museum visitors know her name by the time they conclude their visit. Do you know the names of any other women who lived here? 

The Taft Museum of Art’s Bicentennial Infrastructure Project, undertaken to conserve our historic house, has completed its first phase. The HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system of the 2004 building has been updated to provide a specific controlled environment.

We reflect on an illustrated book commemorating the “Golden Wedding”—meaning the fiftieth wedding anniversary—of former Taft historic house residents Nicholas Longworth and Susan Howell Connor Longworth. The couple had lived in the Pike Street mansion for nearly thirty years by the time this merry event occurred.