Sotterley Foundation highlights rising attendance, education plans and slave-cabin stabilization

Sotterley Foundation representatives told the Board of County Commissioners of St. Mary's County on a site visit that the historic Sotterley plantation has seen increased attendance and is expanding education and event programming while undertaking preservation work.

The presentation, given by Michael Lane on behalf of the Sotterley Board of Trustees, emphasized two priorities: tourism and education. Lane said a newly produced brochure and distribution efforts contributed to higher visitation and outlined a coming wine festival and school programs that the site plans to expand.

Lane told the commissioners that attendance between May and Aug. this year is up 12% compared with the same period last year. He also described a planned WineFest set for Oct. 6–7, for which organizers have contracted 13 wineries and 28 artisans and said the site can accommodate what organizers described as an expected crowd of up to 5,000. "Attendance for May through 20th August this year versus the same time frame last year is up 12%," Michael Lane said.

Andy Keeney, identified in the presentation as Sotterley’s director of education, described a slate of school-year and camp programs aimed at local students. Keeney said Sotterley expects increased participation from 5th- and 8th-grade classes in its Riverways and Slavery to Freedom programs, and that the St. Mary's County Public Schools included the Riverways program in the district's environmental brochure. He listed tentative day-camp themes and said Sotterley is seeking proposals for a colonial camp and a camp serving children with autism for summer 2008.

Lane and Keeney described hands-on activities used in education programs, including a "plantation pass" station, Colonial Creation crafts, historical clothing, and supervised archaeology demonstrations for students to sift and interpret finds recovered near the slave cabin.

On preservation, Lane said Sotterley received a major stabilization and repair grant from the 1772 Foundation specifically for the slave cabin visible from the site. He said work could be visible "within the next several weeks" and possibly around WineFest. Lane also said funding from the France-Murray Foundation paid for tents, tables, chairs and heaters to expand programming into the shoulder seasons and for audio-visual equipment and Internet capability in the barn and customs warehouse.

Lane thanked the commissioners for earlier county support and referenced a county allocation that he described as $50,000 "initially provided" and an additional supplemental amount described in the presentation with ambiguous phrasing; the supplemental amount in the transcript is recorded as "25 1,000 supplemental" and is not specified more precisely in the meeting record.

Sotterley staff and trustees described other recent capital work—four new roofs (museum shop, ice house, smoke house and spinning cottage), a new maintenance building to replace a cinder-block shed, and planting 30 Willow Oak trees—and said the board is working on a five-year strategic plan to be completed by the end of the calendar year. Lane said Sotterley had also produced an expanded brochure distributed across Southern Maryland and signed a three-year agreement with the Maryland Wine Association for the wine festival series.

Keeney and Lane said the education work has included offering community-service opportunities for local students (14 students from St. Mary's County over the summer, across elementary, middle and high school levels) and that the site hopes to expand outreach with additional program "trunks" that can travel to schools, including a Slavery to Freedom trunk and a colonial Tidewater plantation trunk.

The presenters noted lectures and public programs scheduled for the coming months and cited possible broadcast exposure from a filmed segment of "Prince Among Slaves," which producers had taken to PBS but had not scheduled an air date at the time of the visit.

The commissioners did not take formal action during the site visit; the presentation concluded with questions and a brief walk-through of the grounds. Sotterley leaders said they will continue discussions with county commissioners in the upcoming budget process about how supplemental county funding will be used for educational activity expansion.