But first, they’ve got to stabilize a building so deteriorated that the public has been barred from entering. A new, $20,000 state historic preservation grant – one of a dozen such grants announced by the Vermont Division of Historic Preservation – will help move the town and its Athens Meeting House Committee toward that goal.
“I think this is a fabulous start,” said Sherry Maher, the Athens committe’s chairwoman.
The state’s latest round of historic preservation grants total $199,367. There was plenty of competition for that pot of money: Officials said the Vermont Advisory Council on Historic Preservation reviewed 56 grant applications requesting a total of $871,939.
Three of the 12 awardees are in Windham County, and that’s the most projects recognized in any one county. In addition to the Athens effort, the state awarded $20,000 to restore the Daisy Turner Homestead in Grafton and $6,725 for ongoing work at the Newfane Railroad Depot.
In Athens, the Old Brick Church served as “a gathering place where Old Home Days were celebrated, where the militia mustered, where famous speakers of the day addressed capacity crowds and where religious services of any denomination could be held,” supporters wrote in their grant application.
The effort to restore the building for renewed public use carries an estimated $60,000 price tag.
“We are continuing to look into other potential funding sources, and we’re going to be doing a fund-raising campaign with the Athens Historic Preservation Society,” Maher said. The goal, she added, is to stabilize the building this year “and then be able to look at whatever volunteer efforts we can put together to spruce it up for the 200th anniversary of the building the following summer.”
In neighboring Grafton, it’s expected that the state grant will help breathe new life into a property known alternately as the Turner Homestead or Journey’s End. It’s the site where former slave Alex Turner settled in 1873.
Turner was “a well-known storyteller, a trait he passed to his daughter, Daisy,” state officials said. “The family’s oral history has made the Turner Homestead one of the best-documented African American history sites in Vermont.”
Officials want to restore Birchdale House, a guest house on the state-owned Turner property, for use as an unstaffed historic site that is easily accessible to the public. “A good access road, building restoration, interpretation and handicapped access will open the site for the public to learn about the nationally significant history of an African American family living on a Vermont hill farm,” officials wrote in their grant application.
That application, filed by the Preservation Trust of Vermont, says the Grafton-based Windham Foundation “has agreed to take ownership of the property as well as steward and maintain it.” But a Windham Foundation representative on Monday said that transaction has not yet taken place.
The smallest of county’s historical preservation grants nonetheless is appreciated by Windham County Historical Society, which has purchased and is renovating the former Newfane Railroad Depot. “When you look at the amount of money that was requested (statewide), we are really grateful for the partial grant that we received,” said Laura Wallingford-Bacon, society president.
The building served as a station on the famed West River Railroad, which was completed in 1880 and ran from Brattleboro to South Londonderry. Dubbed the “36 miles of trouble,” it was as well-known for wrecks and other mishaps as it was for the relative speed with which it whisked travelers through Windham County.
The county historical society plans to use the station both as a complement to the county museum, located a short distance away on Route 30, and as a standalone West River Railroad museum. Work began last year and included a new roof, excavation, drainage and electrical connections.
“We’re on hold for the winter, and we expect to resume in June,” Wallingford-Bacon said.
Nine other projects received historic preservation grants, and uses for those grants were detailed by the Division of Historic Preservation:
• Adamant (Calais) – Community Arts Center – $10,059. State funding will assist with installing a new metal roof, repointing a brick chimney and rebuilding porch steps on the 1890s-era building, formerly a one-room schoolhouse.
• Bennington – Park McCullough Carriage Barn – $20,000. The grant goes toward ongoing repairs to the foundation and slate roof and to address drainage issues at the barn, which is part of an estate constructed as a summer retreat in 1865.
• Brandon – United Methodist Church – $18,250. Funding will help the congregation replace a failing roof. The church was constructed in 1876 and is located on Brandon’s Village Green.
• Brownington – Old Stone House Museum – $14,275. The grant will support restoration of historic windows and structural repairs on the historic Grammar School, which dates to 1823 and served as the first secondary school in Orleans County.
• Burlington – St. Joseph’s Church – $20,000. The state grant will support work to repair “this prominent part of Burlington’s skyline,” which dates to the 1880s. A 600-pound iron cross atop the church’s steeple was removed following a 2010 wind storm, and a temporary membrane remains in place on top of the cupola dome.
• Lyndonville – St. Peter’s Episcopal Mission – $20,000. Built in 1898, the building serves as a church and community space and also is used by Lyndon Area Food Shelf. Money will go toward completing exterior masonry work and restoring stained-glass windows.
• Montpelier – College Hall, College of Fine Arts – $20,000. The hall was built in 1872 on the site of a Civil War Hospital. The state grant will support “significant repairs” to the hall’s roof and cornice.
• Morrisville – First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ – $20,000. The church’s congregation recently replaced the building’s roof, and the state grant will help repair deteriorated stained-glass windows. The church was built in 1839; it also hosts Lamoille County Youth Center and local assistance programs.
• Norwich – Beaver Meadow Union Chapel – $10,059. Noted as “one of the few remaining historic structures in the village of West Norwich,” the century-old building functions as a church and is available for community use. The grant will support replacement of a failing roof.
