T here will be a nineteenth-century May Day celebration at the Elisabet Ney Museum on Sunday, May 4, 2-4 PM, to launch National Preservation Week in Austin, May 5-12.

Three for the show; turn of the century photo-op of kids who played at the Ney. Courtesy Austin Public Library

    Sponsored by the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Ney is spotlighted this year for its recognition by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of twenty of the most significant historic artists' homes and studios in the country and its subsequent designation as a National Trust Associate Site. The National Trust created Preservation Week in 1971 to bring attention to grassroots preservation efforts across the country. The 2003 National Preservation Week theme is "Cities, Suburbs and Countryside."
    Elisabet Ney established her studio, Formosa, in Hyde Park on the northeast border of Austin in 1892. As the social and entertainment center of the city, Hyde Park featured the Hyde Park Fairgrounds and a Hyde Park Pavilion to which young people and families flocked to attend extensive and various entertainments including musicals, operas, plays, a