Interesting article in the New York Times: Long After Revolutionary War, House Is Still a Battle Scene, by Stephanie Strom:
A fight is brewing here over a house where George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette plotted their defense of the Hudson River. The house, named Mandeville House, was left in trust by Margaret Allan Gething, a character actress and an interior designer, with the intent that it become a museum. But more than three decades after Miss Gething’s death, it remains largely out of reach to the public. Instead, a lawyer from Texas, who was her friend and now heads the Texas foundation that owns the house, lives in it several weeks each year. Otherwise, it is locked up….
Several nonprofit legal experts questioned various aspects of the foundation’s administration of the houses. They said that as a trustee, Mr. Perry should not be using Mandeville House as a residence, that the foundation should probably be paying taxes on its rental income and that the houses might not be open enough to justify the foundation’s tax exemption. "What’s their charitable purpose?" Evelyn Brody, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, asked. "In the past, museums have had to prove they are both charitable and educational, and it’s hard to argue these houses are both charitable and educational if people rarely see them." Mr. Perry, who spent part of his career as the Exxon Corporation’s lead litigator, contends that the foundation operates entirely within the law. "The IRS does not require me to open the house," he said. "All we’re required to do is maintain it."
[Mr. Perry] said he had imposed greater accountability for Mandeville House by creating a foundation. "I had absolute discretion under the trust Margaret created and could do anything I wanted," he said. "As a foundation, we have a plan for perpetuity, bylaws and a board, checks and balances." The board consists of Mr. Perry and his two sisters. Asked how often his sisters vetoed his proposals, Mr. Perry laughed and said, "You know how ladies are."
(Hat Tip: Michael Mulroney.)
