BOLTON LANDING — The Sembrich has received a gift of real property from the estate of Anita Behr Richards, the museum’s founding administrative director, reuniting a piece of Marcella Sembrich’s Bay View Estate with the grounds it once served.
Anita, a fixture at The Sembrich for more than 40 years, passed away in February at age 87. Her will left the museum her home at 4825 Lake Shore Drive — known as Hilltop Cottage — along with its barns and greenhouse.
Sembrich’s Bay View estate was originally built by the Bement family, founders of the Green Island Improvement Corporation, which also founded the Sagamore Hotel. Marcella Sembrich purchased Bay View in 1922 and had Hilltop Cottage constructed for the estate’s caretaker on the farm across the road from her own lakeside home. After Sembrich’s death, her daughter-in-law and The Sembrich’s founder, Juliette de Coppet Stengel, hired Anita’s father, George Behr, in 1944 as caretaker of the museum and her summer home, Pine Hill, and later left him the farmhouse in her will.
Anita grew up in the house. After her father’s death, she and her husband, Charlie, took over as its stewards and ran it for nearly 30 years as Hilltop Cottage Bed & Breakfast. In gifting the property to The Sembrich, Anita fulfilled a wish she and Charlie held for years: that it would one day be reunited with the estate their family had cared for across two generations. The building will now house The Sembrich’s administrative offices.
“Our gratitude to Anita and Charlie Richards knows no bounds; this is a transformative gift to The Sembrich, one that will not only enable us to streamline operations, properly maintain our archives and collections and preserve another historic property, but enlarge our profile and year-round presence in Bolton Landing,” said Lisa H. Hall, president of the Sembrich’s board of directors. “Our productive use and stewardship of this property will be a lasting tribute to Charlie and Anita, one we believe they would have welcomed and appreciated.”
Anita’s connection to The Sembrich began in childhood and lasted the rest of her life. Born in Alzey, Germany, in 1938, she graduated as valedictorian of Bolton Central School and earned a degree from Syracuse University, later studying in Germany on a Fulbright Grant. She married Charles O. Richards in 1965 and taught German for two decades before she and Charlie returned to Bolton Landing in 1985.
In 1990, Anita became The Sembrich’s first administrative director. In 2003, she moved into the part-time role of program coordinator, a position she held until retiring in 2019. During her tenure she completed the first comprehensive inventory of the museum’s collections and founded the Young Performers Showcase, now in its 21st season. She later served on the board of directors from 2021 to 2025 and was named a Member Emerita.
Her ties to Bolton Landing extended well beyond the museum. For 27 years, she and Charlie delivered Meals on Wheels together throughout the town. She sang in local church choirs and with the Adirondack Voices community chorus, and was a longtime member of the Bolton Book Club and Bolton Health Committee.
Anita and her late husband Charlie were members of The Sembrich’s Hillman Leadership Society, having chosen together to leave a legacy gift to the organization.
“Anita gave The Sembrich her time, her talent, and now, a part of her life’s legacy,” Caleb Eick, director of advancement & curatorial affairs at The Sembrich, said. “This gift reunites a piece of our history that had been separated for generations, and it reflects a lifetime spent making sure The Sembrich would endure.”