Delaware Preservation Fund announces 24 grant awards to preserve historic places

ROCKLAND — The Delaware Preservation Fund recently announced 24 grant awards totaling $124,122 for sites in New Castle, Kent, and Sussex Counties.

Funded projects for 2024 included 16 historic houses, nine church buildings, a bank, a fire control tower, a cemetery, a mill, and several types of historic outbuildings.

Several of the properties that received grants are museums owned by non-profit organizations and open to visitors. These include the George Read House in New Castle, the Taylor’s Bridge School in Blackbird, the Winterthur Museum’s gatehouse, the bank building owned by Historic Odessa Foundation, the Governor Ross Mansion in Seaford, and the Parson Thorne Mansion in Milford.

Private homeowners also received funding again this year, including projects in Wilmington, Newark, and Laurel.

Jeremy Rothwell, the president of the fund’s board of directors, said the organization was able to make a larger impact this year due to a generous contribution of $50,000 from the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, as well as a $25,000 grant to support projects in New Castle County given by Matt Meyer, county executive.

Mr. Rothwell said, “Every year, we have to turn down strong applications for historic places that are deserving of support, but for which there is not enough funding. But this year, thanks to the DHCA’s support and New Castle County’s contribution, we didn’t have to turn down very many.”

The Fund received 34 qualified applications for the 2024 grant program, the majority of which were selected for funding.

A manager of the program, Michael Emmons, Jr., of the Center for Historic Architecture and Design (CHAD) at the University of Delaware, said even small grants like those issued by the Delaware Preservation Fund can make a large and timely impact.

One of the projects funded this year helped repair a failing 170-year-old structural system under St. Daniel’s Community Church, a historically Black church built around 1855 in the Iron Hill area of Newark, where the floor was sagging and a column supporting an upper gallery was sinking.

While the Delaware Preservation Fund has historically supported physical, bricks-and-mortar type projects, such as new roofs, porch restorations, and masonry repairs, it has also recently begun considering applications for preservation planning projects.

Cate Morrissey, of the Center for Historic Architecture and Design, said this is an important new category of work for the Fund.

“Often times, an engineering assessments or a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places is a crucial first step toward saving a historic building,” Ms. Morrissey said.

One such award made by the Fund during the last grant cycle was subsequently added to the National Register last fall.

The Fund will soon begin accepting applications for its 2025 grant cycle, likely with a submission deadline of February 2025. More information is available at preservationde.org/preservation-fund .