HOPE Crew Restores Fence at John and Alice Coltrane Home

August 29, 2019 by Julia Rocchi

In August 2019, Hands-On Preservation Experience (HOPE) Crew performed important restoration work at the John and Alice Coltrane Home, located on Long Island in the community of Dix Hills. The National Trust partnered with two youth-serving initiatives from the Town of Huntington to repair the fence that fronts the entire property. The first group's participants (ages 18-24) was part of a program called Out of School, a workforce development program for at-risk youth; the second group was comprised of local volunteers (ages 14-18) from a Huntington, New York, community center.

Over the course of several days, these teams repaired, scraped, and painted the iron fence. Father and son trades experts Ken and David Follett of Quality Restoration Works guided their efforts.

The National Trust named the home a National Treasure in 2018, bringing its nearly 70 years of expertise to help the John and Alice Coltrane Home implement its vision for rehabilitating the now-vacant home and commemorating the Coltranes’ lasting contributions to the fields of music, humanitarianism, diplomacy, and spirituality.

The work undertaken by African American youth at the Coltrane Home is part of a partnership between the Fund II Foundation and the Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund (AACHAF). Other past and upcoming HOPE Crew activities made possible with Fund II support include preservation projects at the Nina Simone Childhood Home in Tryon, North Carolina; Bethel Baptist Church's Parsonage in Birmingham, Alabama; Atlanta’s Herndon Home Museum; and six-week intensive internships for architecture students enrolled at two HBCUs—part of Fund II Foundation’s commitment to diversifying STEM fields of education.

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