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 over 50 years. In the June round, the National Trust received 85 eligible applications and awarded a total of $308,675 in grants to 53 organizations in 27 states and the District of Columbia. Read more about these projects below. Learn how you can apply to our upcoming October 1 grant round and sign up for email reminders about our grant programs.

June 2023 National Trust Preservation Fund Grant Recipients

Lifting As We Climb Foundation, Inc. | Hoover, Alabama
$2,500 to develop a brochure and historic narrative document to honor the former enslaved people and white Union soldiers that fought with General Wilson’s Raiders in Alabama in 1865.

Pickensville Community Center Council | Pickensville, Alabama
$5,000 to support research and planning for a permanent historic classroom exhibit and curriculum in the Pickensville Rosenwald School.

Trinity Episcopal Church | Demopolis, Alabama
$2,500 to create an educational program that tells the full history of St. Andrew’s, including the lives of formerly enslaved craftsmen Peter Lee and Joe Glascow.

Alex Foundation | McGehee, Arkansas
$3,000 to support a series of free student and teacher-based workshops on the architecture, history, and culture of Taylor House and Hollywood Plantation.

Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas | Little Rock, Arkansas
$3,250 to support a Dollars and Sense of Historic Preservation workshop on the economic benefits and financial incentives of preservation.

Immaculate Heart Community | Los Angeles, California

The Immaculate Heart Community in California will use a $5,000 grant to expand on the legacy of artist, educator, and social justice advocate Corita Kent through an interactive walking tour that highlights the recently digitized collection of over 15,000 never-before-seen photographs from the Corita Art Center Archival Collection. The Learning to See Tour will take participants to the locations that shaped Corita’s work and increase awareness of designated landmarks associated with women’s history. Today, just 3 percent of designated historic places are associated with women’s history.

Los Angeles Conservancy | Los Angeles, California
$20,000 to develop a research, designation, policy, and public education project, in partnership with the National Trust’s Where Women Made History program, that centers the histories and impact of women in Los Angeles.

State Theatre Arts Guild, Inc. (STAGE) | Oroville, California
$2,500 to secure architectural services for a schematic design to restore the Historic Oroville State Theatre’s entry doors and ticket booth to their original beauty.

The Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation | San Diego, California
$5,000 to expand programming at the Gaslamp Museum on the important history of the development of Downtown San Diego, the Historic Gaslamp Quarter, and the Davis-Horton House.

City of Leadville | Leadville, Colorado
$5,000 to support a complete historic context study and survey of Leadville’s National Historic Landmark District.

Friends of Perry-Mansfield | Steamboat Springs, Colorado
$10,000 to build capacity for a capital campaign to renovate the historic Julie Harris Theater in the first phase of a long-term plan to develop a year-round performance space.

Hinsdale County Historical Society | Lake City, Colorado
$10,000 to restore the narrow-gauge Rail Car 211, a rare combine passenger/freight car produced in 1881, which will be showcased at the Hinsdale County Museum to educate the public on the importance of the railroad.

American Battlefield Trust | Washington, D.C.
$25,000 to support a technical brief on the impact of Data Center development on Virginia’s historic landscapes.

City Tavern Preservation Foundation, Inc. | Washington, D.C.
$5,000 toward a capital and programming campaign to purchase and save the historic City Tavern from demolition. The City Tavern is the last standing Federal-era tavern in DC.

President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home | Washington, D.C.
$5,000 to support the addition of preservation-focused programming to President Lincoln’s Cottage’s annual Homecoming celebration. The event honors the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Friends of American Beach, Inc. | Fernandina Beach, Florida
$2,500 to create an annual calendar to memorialize, document, and educate the community on American Beach, a historic district founded in 1935 as a resort for African Americans.

Jack Hadley Black History Memorabilia, Inc. | Thomasville, Georgia
$5,000 toward a historic structures report that will guide the renovation of the Imperial Hotel, a Green Book site that provided shelter for African American travelers during the Jim Crow era.

Jim-Ree African American Museum, Inc. | Elberton, Georgia
$3,763 to support a landscape architect on plans to revitalize the Pinetown Cemetery through biodiversity conservation and enhanced visitor experience.

Friends of the Palace Theater | Hilo, Hawaiʻi
$5,000 to develop a conceptual design and plan for renovations to the Palace Theater in time for its Centennial Celebration. Built in 1925, the theater is a space for Hawaiʻi’s performing artists, local and international filmmakers, and community-based events.

Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa | Cedar Falls, Iowa
$5,000 to support strategic fund development and partnership planning to restore the former Walnut Street Baptist Church into a reimagined hub for innovation, education, and healing.

Heritage Works | Dubuque, Iowa
$5,000 to develop a framework for content and programming that tells the full story of Dubuque’s Black heritage. The project follows the City of Dubuque’s Black Heritage Survey completed in 2023.

Kentucky Organization of Professional Archaeologists |Morgantown, Kentucky
$5,000 to update and increase accessibility to the educational resources that support the annual Living Archaeology Weekend, an event that provides archaeology-informed technology demonstrations for an underserved region in eastern Kentucky.

Louisiana Museum of African American History | New Orleans, Louisiana
$2,500 to support a new walking tour guidebook for St. Louis Cemetery No. 2, which was founded in 1823 and is now part of the African American Heritage Trail in Louisiana.

West Ouachita Senior Center | West Monroe, Louisiana
$4,100 to support an oral history project that will document the stories of West Monroe’s longest residents who have seen the city progress and played a critical role in its development.

Oakland Area Historical Society | Oakland, Maine
$4,000 toward education and outreach activities to raise awareness and funds for the preservation of Memorial Hall, a Civil War Monument, with plans to bring the hall back to its full community use for retail space, performances, and town meetings.

Opportunity 1888 Foundation, Inc. | Jefferson City, Missouri
$5,000 to preserve and restore the Harrison School, the last remaining 19th century school built explicitly for Black students in Moniteau County, Missouri, to community use as a gathering place.

Historical Society of Gulfport | Gulfport, Mississippi
$2,500 to support a feasibility study of the Historic Broadmoor, a two-story building that served as one of the only places where residents of three segregated neighborhoods converged at the height of the Jim Crow Era.

Historic Wilmington Foundation, Inc. | Wilmington, North Carolina
$5,000 to fund the professional development and implementation of a major gifts strategy to support Giblem Lodge’s rehabilitation for future use as a community center.

Franklin Opera House, Inc. | Franklin, New Hampshire
$4,000 to conduct an economic feasibility study to expand the performance and entertainment uses of the Soldiers Memorial Hall, or Franklin Opera House, built in 1892.

The Archaeological Conservancy | Albuquerque, New Mexico
$5,000 to fence the Yellow Jacket Canyon archaeological site located in southwestern Colorado. The site contains prehistoric resources dating from both the Pueblo II and Pueblo III periods (AD 775-1300).

Hopeprint Inc. | Syracuse, New York
$5,000 to carry out community engagement efforts toward the preservation of the Northside neighborhood in Syracuse, where hundreds of historic houses and buildings built as early as 1890 are facing blight and disinvestment.

Otsego 2000, Inx. | Cooperstown, New York
$2,431 to support workshops and walking tours on preservation techniques to advance the importance of investing in the community’s historic built environment.

Our Home Base, Inc. | New Paltz, New York
$5,000 to create an architectural design for the inside of a historic 6,000 square foot Community Center that once served as the training grounds for heavyweight boxing champions like Muhammad Ali.

Prospect Lefferts Gardens Heritage Council Inc. | Brooklyn, New York
$5,000 toward a Reconnaissance-level Cultural Resource Survey of 1,000 buildings in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens neighborhood to establish their eligibility for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

Tullahassee Wildcats Foundation | Tullahassee, Oklahoma
$5,000 to develop plans for the preservation, repurposing, and restoration of Tullahassee’s historical assets.

Benton County Historical Society | Philomath, Oregon
$5,000 to support an architectural program and concept design that prioritizes accessibility for the Philomath Museum.

Willamette Heritage Center at the Mill | Salem, Oregon
$5,000 to evaluate potential structural concerns of the Thomas Kay Woolen Mill’s historic steel water tank and braced steel water tower.

Historical Society of Dauphin County | Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
$5,000 to restore and repair the doors and windows of the John Harris-Simon Cameron Mansion, a National Historic Landmark first built in 1766. It served as the Pennsylvania Female College from 1853-1863.

Main Street York | York, Pennsylvania
$15,000 to restore and rehabilitate the Zion Lutheran Church to an adaptive reuse event venue and public gathering space.

Preserve Rhode Island | Providence, Rhode Island
$5,000 to support the first two phases of a strategic communication plan to expand and broaden Preserve Rhode Island’s audience for historic preservation.

C. Williams Rush Museum of African-American Arts & Culture | Kingstree, South Carolina
$3,000 to develop a Black history guide of Kingstree and Williamsburg County, which would include 10 Rosenwald Schools, the site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “March on Ballot Boxes” speech, and other historic markers.

Augustana University | Sioux Falls, South Dakota
$5,000 to develop a mobile phone app that allows users to explore place-based histories in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota based on geo-located pins on a digital map.

Knoxville Botanical Gardens & Arboretum | Knoxville, Tennessee

The Knoxville Botanical Gardens & Arboretum in Tennessee will use a $4,400 grant to support a Historic Site Master Plan for the future rehabilitation of the 44-acre property. Formerly home to Howell Nurseries (ca. 1895), the abandoned site was saved from development in 2001 and added to the National Register in 2022. Access to the Knoxville Botanical Gardens & Arboretum is free and open to the public, offering walking trails, community gardens, a native plant rescue center, and educational events that serve 32,000 locals and tourists annually.

City of Houston, Texas | Houston, Texas
$4,500 to assist commissioners, appeals board, and staff with training that will aid the City of Houston’s preservation process as they grow with new districts, landmarks, and preservation projects.

Descendants of Olivewood | Houston, Texas
$5,000 to commission site-wide geophysical and topological surveys as preliminary steps in the development of a comprehensive drainage solution to restore and preserve the cemetery. Olivewood was designated in 2022 as one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places by the National Trust.

Preservation Austin | Austin, Texas
$4,731 to support a Legacy Business Month program to encourage patronage of Austin’s legacy businesses, educate locals on their histories, and build awareness for policies needed to ensure their longevity.

Texas African American Museum | Tyler, Texas
$2,000 to design a museum exhibit on the Rosenwald school program to residents of Smith County, which was home to 17 Rosenwald schools.

The Chinati Foundation | Marfa, Texas

The Chinati Foundation in Texas will use a $15,000 grant to support architectural scoping and planning documents for twin buildings that were formerly part of Fort D.A. Russell, an American military installation active from 1911 to 1946. The buildings, known today as the artillery sheds, currently house the artist Donald Judd’s untitled 100 works in mill aluminum. Project results will provide museum leadership with guidance on future efforts to preserve the artwork and artillery sheds, which are considered some of the 20th century’s most important works of art and architecture.