2023 Massachusetts Preservation Grants Awarded
POMFRET, Connecticut
16 grant recipients announced
The 1772 Foundation, partnering for a fourth year with Preservation Massachusetts, awarded historic preservation one-for-one matching grants totaling $125,000 to sixteen private nonprofit organizations maintaining historic sites in Massachusetts. The grants ranged in amount from $745 to the grant maximum of $10,000, with eight organizations receiving the latter amount.
Grants were provided for exterior work: painting; surface restoration; fire detection/security systems; repairs to/restoration of chimneys, porches, roofs, and windows; repairs to foundations and sills; and masonry repointing. Projects were evaluated by Preservation Massachusetts staff, who also will manage the grants. Each grantee was required to have matching funds for its project.
President and CEO of Preservation Massachusetts Erin Kelly states, “We were grateful to, for the fourth consecutive year, partner with The 1772 Foundation to provide this funding program to stewards of historic buildings across the Commonwealth. Since 2020, this program has demonstrated the significant impact that even small grants can make. The need for dollars to fund critical repairs and the ongoing maintenance of these buildings grows each year. The projects that this year’s grant recipients will undertake help ensure that the historic resources that are integral parts of our communities remain for tomorrow. Throughout the course of the grant process, we have heard repeated sentiments of appreciation from Cape Cod to Pittsfield for the support The 1772 Foundation offers to preservation projects.”
President of The 1772 Foundation Margaret Waldock commented on the importance of these grants to the preservation community. “With these grants, The 1772 Foundation continues its investment in preservation efforts that protect assets of community importance. While the individual grants may seem small, we have found they leverage considerable local resources and opportunities — community-provided matching dollars, support for local businesses and tradespeople, and the longterm power of incremental, small-scale capital investments in roofs, windows, and structural improvements that protect and maintain the value of assets over time.”
Grant recipients were Clapp Memorial Library (Belchertown), Danvers Historical Society (Danvers), Historic Deerfield (Deerfield), Friends of the Stone Church (Gilbertville), Friends of the Franklin County Fairgrounds Inc. (Greenfield), Historic New England (Lincoln), Longmeadow Historical Society (Longmeadow), Marblehead Museum & Historical Society (Marblehead), Forbes House Museum (Milton), Berkshire County Historical Society (Pittsfield), Shirley-Eustis House Association (Roxbury), Historic Salem Inc., and House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association (both in Salem), Old Sturbridge Village (Sturbridge), Topsfield Historical Society (Topsfield), and West Falmouth Library (West Falmouth). Grants were also awarded in each of the other five New England states and in Georgia.