January 05, 2023

National Trust Preservation Fund Awards $255,894 in Funding for Historic Sites, Main Streets, Affordable Housing, and More

The National Trust Preservation Fund, the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s small dollar grant program, has been providing catalytic funding to organizations across the country for more than 50 years.

In the October 2022 round, the National Trust received 61 eligible applications and awarded a total of $255,894 in grants to 47 organizations in 21 states and the District of Columbia. Read more about these projects below, learn how you can apply to our February 1 grant round here.

Main Street Alabama | Birmingham, Alabama
$35,000 to support a statewide effort to review code and zoning ordinances at designated Main Street districts in Alabama and develop best practices for economic development in the context of historic preservation.

Quapaw Quarter Association | Little Rock, Arkansas
$10,000 to carry out a window restoration bootcamp at the Ernest Green House to provide workforce training in restoration trades. The site was the home of the first Black graduate of Little Rock Central High School.

Douglas Flat Community Center | Douglas Flat, California
$5,000 for consultant fees to inspect and recommend methods for stabilization of the 1854 Douglas Flat School. The school building is now in use as a community hall, museum, and tourism site.

Museum Of Neon Art | Glendale, California
$5,000 to create a audio guide pilot about historic neon signage, starting with five sites scattered across Los Angeles County.

Chicano/a /x Murals of Colorado Project | Morrison, Colorado
$1,844 for 3D scanning of Chicano/a/x Murals of Pueblo, San Luis, and Colorado Springs to be used as an interactive and digital component of educational programming. These murals were on the 2022 list of America's 11 Most Endangered Places.

University of Colorado Denver | Aurora, Colorado
$10,000 to support the Preserve America Youth Summit, an educational program that engages students of diverse backgrounds in immersive programming in historic preservation and Native American culture in Southwest Colorado.

Georgetown Heritage | Washington, D.C.
$5,000 to adapt and develop new educational programming at the C&O Canal while the National Park Service undertakes important restoration projects on-site over the next two years.

1882 Project Foundation | Washington, D.C.
$5,000 to support the planning of a national conference focused on Chinese historic sites located in rural areas. The conference will convene experts on Chinese American history, archeology, and historic preservation for a multi-day meeting Washington, D.C. in 2023.

The L'Enfant Trust | Washington, D.C.
The L’Enfant Trust was awarded $5,000 to obtain a structural conditions assessment and to develop preliminary stabilization designs for “Big Green,” a 1902 Queen-Anne style, two-family house built by H.A. Griswold that has been vacant for nearly three decades. Griswold, who was President of the Anacostia and Potomac River Railway, had a significant impact on the development of Historic Anacostia and was also a well-known friend and colleague of Frederick Douglass. Once rehabilitated, the L’Enfant Trust will sell the property as multi-unit affordable housing.

Current photo of Big Green. | Credit: The L'Enfant Trust

Church of the Holy City | Wilmington, Delaware
$2,250 for architectural fees for the first phase of restoration of the Church of the Holy City, a contributing building in the Cool Spring Historic District, which has urgent needs due to water damage.

The Lewes Historical Society | Lewes, Delaware
$5,000 for the research and development of an exhibit that will feature oral histories and a map focused on the culture and historic places of importance to the Black community in Lewes during the Segregation Era.

Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs | Dover, Delaware
$5,000 to undertake archaeological work at Cooch's Bridge Historic Site, Delaware’s only Revolutionary War battleground, to inform a larger effort of ongoing preservation and infrastructure work, interpretation, and programming.

Preservation Delaware, Inc. | Camden, Delaware
$5,000 to hire a consultant to conduct research on federal Section 106 policy, Delaware state laws, and existing state Section 106 programs in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Washington, and Florida. Preservation Delaware, Inc. will use this research to create a case statement to build support for the adoption of similar legislation in Delaware in hopes of implementing state policy that will help save historic places.

Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission | Savannah, Georgia
$5,000 to develop a video series that shares Savannah examples of stories about underrepresented histories and noteworthy accomplishments by minority communities, information on redlining and housing inequity, and environmental issues such as industrial pollution and environmental racism. The series will be created for use on the Metropolitan Planning Commission’s Historic Preservation Department Instagram.

Liljestrand Foundation | Honolulu, Hawaii
$5,000 to conduct an existing condition survey for the Liljestrand House, Vladimir Ossipoff’s work of mid-twentieth century Hawaiian modern architecture that is now open to the public as a historic house museum and programmatic space.

Hui Noeau Visual Arts Center | Makawao, Hawaii
$3,500 to restore original doors and windows at Charles W. Dickey’s Kaluanui Estate. Originally built as a family home for Harry and Ethel Baldwin in 1917, the 25-acre estate has been transformed into working artist studios, exhibition galleries, and classrooms.

Haleiwa Waialua Historical Society| Haleiwa, Hawaii
$5,000 to complete a historic structure report for the Waialua Agriculture Company building, which was originally used as the office headquarters for the Waialua Plantation but has sat vacant for nearly three decades. Plans involve working with the community and stakeholders to determine the future of the building.

VanderCook College of Music | Chicago, Illinois
$5,000 to hire a fundraising consultant to raise capital for the restoration of Mies van der Rohe-designed buildings on the VanderCook College of Music’s campus.

Carnegie Center of Corbin, Inc. | Corbin, Kentucky
$7,750 for the restoration of the Carnegie Library of Corbin’s historic windows.

Longue Vue House and Gardens | New Orleans, Louisiana
$5,000 to develop training materials for staff and board members that cover key plantings, historic design intent, and maintenance at the National Historic Landmark Longue Vue House and Gardens. The site is the most mature and intact example of work by landscape architect Ellen Shipman, one of the first female landscape architects in the United States.

United Houma Nation, Inc. | Houma, Louisiana
$3,000 to hire a consultant to complete preservation planning for the Golden Meadow Settlement School following damage from Hurricane Ida. The site was the first designated school for Native Americans in the area and later transitioned to office space used by the United Houma Nation for historical documents, artifacts, and works of art.

Historic New England | Boston, Massachusetts
$7,500 to engage an architect to develop plans for improving accessibility and visitor services at the Gropius House, the internationally significant family home of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius.

Hull Lifesaving Museum | Hull, Massachusetts
Hull Lifesaving Museum was awarded $5,000 to hire a museum consultant to research and develop an exhibition using a collection of more than 100 lantern slides that once belonged to Mary Evelyn Sparrow, the wife of William Chester Sparrow who was the second keeper at the former Point Allerton Lifesaving Station where they both lived and worked. The station is now the Hull Lifesaving Museum and tells the story of the U.S. Lifesaving Service which later became the U.S. Coast Guard and provides social services and educational programming about Boston Harbor’s rich maritime heritage and lifesaving traditions. In the early 1900s, Mary Evelyn Sparrow used the collection of lantern slides on a lecture circuit where she presented to church groups, women’s groups, and more about the U.S. Lifesaving Service, the perils of the coast, and the acts of bravery regularly performed by servicemen.

One of the 100 glass slides showing Mrs. Mary Evelyn Sparrow. | Credit: Hull Lifesaving Museum

Oak Hill Cemetery Company | Battle Creek, Michigan
$5,000 to hire an architect to develop a master plan for the restoration of the Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel. Several notable figures, such as Sojourner Truth, C.W. Post, and more are buried at the cemetery.

Tibbits Opera Foundation & Arts Council, Inc. | Coldwater, Michigan
$3,250 to hire an architect to assess the needs of a recently acquired historic building that is a contributing resource to the Downtown Coldwater Historic District. The organization will use the assessment to develop fundraising goals and future plans for the building.

Underground Railroad Society of Cass County | Vandalia, Michigan
$5,000 to hire a consultant who will teach restoration trades to volunteers at the James E. Bonine House.

Forest Grove Cemetery Project, Inc. | Raytown, Missouri
$1,850 for research and documentation of those buried at Forest Grove Cemetery, the historically African American burial ground in Lexington since the 1850s.

Webster Groves Historical Society | Webster Groves, Missouri
$3,750 to complete a historic structure report, maintenance plan, and collections assessment for the Historic Hawken House Museum to inform future preservation and programming.

The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park | St. Louis, Missouri
$5,000 to develop a maintenance plan for the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park, which was built as family home for Russell Ruth Kraus in 1948 and is now open to the public.

Mount Vernon Rosenwald School | Iron Station, North Carolina
$5,000 for a structural engineering assessment, interior architectural designs, and website planning for the Mount Vernon Rosenwald School restoration project.

Charlotte Museum of History | Charlotte, North Carolina
$5,000 to employ ground penetrating radar technology to determine the presence of unmarked gravesites on the property of the 1774 Alexander Rock House, which was a small plantation where 12 Alexanders and at least 17 enslaved people lived and worked.

The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico | Taos, New Mexico
The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico was awarded $2,000 to hire a consultant to conduct land-use planning related to the restoration of a centuries-old network of acequias that irrigate the Taos valley. Established in the 1700's, the acequias were built by Spanish settlers who made an agreement with the Native Americans of Taos Pueblo to share water resources. Over time, many of the acequias were abandoned, built over, or forgotten. The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, an artist residency campus established by the philanthropist of the same name, seeks to restore the two acequias that bring water to the 15-acre campus and irrigate its diverse ecosystem of native plants and wildlife.

Photo shows one of the open spaces on the Helen Wurlitzer Foundation campus and the water from one restored acequia. | Credit: The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico.

Localogy | Questa, New Mexico
$4,700 to develop restoration and site plans for the Casas de Cultura, which is being envisioned as a community educational space and residency program for artists and scholars that will focus on the renovation and regeneration of the historic building and cultural landscape.

Restore Oregon | Portland, Oregon
$4,500 to undertake strategic planning to focus the organization’s work around key preservation issues, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion; climate; housing, and trades.

Mark Prairie Historical Society | Canby, Oregon
$2,500 to conduct a feasibility study for the Mark Prairie Schoolhouse, which has been used for decades as a rural community space but is undergoing restoration and sustainability planning after being damaged by severe weather.

Vanport Placemarking Project |Portland, Oregon
$5,000 to complete an expanded archaeological survey for Vanport, the WWII housing project that housed 40,000 residents at its height and was washed away in a flood in 1948, displacing about 20,000 people, a third of which were African American.

Battle of Rhode Island Association |Portsmouth, Rhode Island
$5,000 for phase two of an archaeological assessment of the National Historic Landmark Butts Hill Fort, a Revolutionary War earthwork, to inform preservation efforts.

Rhode Island Historical Society | Providence, Rhode Island
$5,000 to develop interpretive signage for the Olmsted Brothers-designed landscape at the National Historic Landmark John Brown House Museum.

Dillon Community Alliance | Dillon, South Carolina
$5,000 to develop preservation plans for a building located in Dillon’s Commercial Historic District, which the organization hopes to restore as a community space.

Friends of the Texas Historical Commission | Austin, Texas
$5,000 to support the Preservation Scholars Program, which aims to increase diversity among preservation professionals by offering a ten-week summer internship to students who identify as part of a diverse ethnic and/or cultural group.

City of San Marcos | San Marcos, Texas
$5,000 to establish an action-oriented, equitable, and inclusive community-wide historic preservation plan for the city using recommendations from a recent historic resources survey.

Foundation for Cultural Arts in San Antonio DBA Las Casas Foundation | San Antonio, Texas
$5,000 to conduct community forums focused on the restoration of the Majestic Theatre and its formerly segregated upper balcony to produce a shared community vision for the space.

City of Sundown Library | Sundown, Texas
$5,000 to hire a structural engineer and architect to develop plans for the transformation of a former historic church into the city’s new library space.

Flower Hill Foundation | Austin, Texas
$5,000 to host a panel discussion exploring the interpretation of Black labor at the Historic Smoot Home and to contextualize the site and its story among other sites of Black labor in Texas.

National Institute of Mexican American History of Civil Rights dba Mexican American Civil Rights Institute | San Antonio, Texas
$5,000 to prepare nominations to the National Register of Historic Places for the Cisneros House, the only surviving property associated with Cisneros et al v. Corpus Christi Independent School District, which extended the protections of Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas to Mexican children in 1968–1971.

Belmead on the James, Inc. | Powhatan, Virginia
$2,500 to hire an architect to develop an ADA compliant accessibility plan for the Drexel-Morrell Center, which was originally built as a school for African American girls and is being adapted for community use.

Spanaway Community Association | Spanaway, Washington
$5,000 to assess preservation needs to inform the adaptive reuse of the 1908 Parkland School, the demolition for which has temporarily been halted while community members raise funds to purchase the building and return it to community use.

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Lizzy Barringer was the manager for grants and awards at the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

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