Volunteer

Tucked away on a busy city street, a bit of the past is hidden away in the present. Mr. Grainger invites you

into his home. You'll leave with knowledge in your mind, and a song in your heart!.

Volunteers are essential to our mission, contributing many hours of service annually at the Percy Grainger Home & Studio.  Each year our volunteers donate their time to help greet the public, conduct tours, and care for our gardens, each enhancing the visitor experience. Volunteering gives you hands-on experience in a local historic house—a chance to work with board, staff and other volunteers and to interact with the public and our visitors.

'Volunteering at the Grainger House gives me a chance to serve the local community—I love this house and its historic mission!' Suzanne Hoch, Collections Volunteer

The Percy Grainger House is essentially a time capsule, a snapshot of life as lived in the early twentieth century. Percy Grainger, and his mother, Rose Grainger, moved in during May, 1921. It became home base for the Grainger family (Percy married Ella in 1928) for the next fifty-eight years. Many of the rooms are unchanged and reflect the taste, customs, and interests of this eclectic (some might say eccentric) family.

As the Graingers settled in through the decades, they gathered day-to-day items (sewing baskets and shoe polish kits) while collecting souvenirs during their travels (Chinese hanging bells and native American woven baskets). Each family member added dozens of self-created works-of-arts and quirky inventions (Ella’s ceramic tiles, Percy’s designs for sheet music covers), storing items in fire-proof basement vaults or attic boxes. Many treasures remain where the Graingers placed them.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this 1890’s house has served many purposes over the years for the Graingers, as well as their guests. Today, volunteers are organizing, interpreting and re-creating the Grainger story as it unfolds discovery-by-discovery. Each object and each room tells its own story and offers its own insights into this fascinating family.

Our volunteers help in many ways, from assisting with events to promoting Grainger's music and legacy. Some volunteers take on very specific jobs that meet their individual interests and expertise, but are greatest need is for Tour Guides. 

If you live in the White Plains area, please consider becoming a Tour Guide and sharing the Grainger House and legacy. We have a steady stream of visitors, especially during the summer (tours are usually arranged on Wednesdays or Sunday afternoons). You’ll meet history enthusiasts as well as Grainger fans from far and near, some of whom are making a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to see how the maestro lived and worked.

Here, a docent explains how the Graingers lived and worked at 7 Cromwell Place to a visiting school band, although most tours are much smaller, giving docents a chance to get to know and talk with visitors individually