News Release

National Park Service, Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Endowment for the Arts, and National Endowment for the Humanities Announce $12.6 Million in Save America’s Treasures Grants

Built in the late 1820s, Hill House was the first home built on the farm of prominent Southern novelist and short-story writer, Flannery O’Connor. The home was restored through a Save America’s Treasures grant in 2010.

Photo Credit: Hill House, Flannery O’Conner’s Andalusia, Georgia College & State University, 2018.

News Release Date: September 20, 2019

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Additional Contacts: 
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National Endowment for the Arts, e-mail us
Institute of Museum and Library Services, e-mail us 


WASHINGTON – The National Park Service (NPS) today announced $12.6 million in Save America’s Treasures grants to assist funding 41 preservation and conservation projects in 23 states.

The NPS, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), awarded these matching grants to support the preservation of nationally significant historic properties and collections through the Save America’s Treasures program.

“Save America’s Treasures helps preserve nationally significant historic properties and collections that convey our nation's rich heritage to future generations of Americans,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt. “This $12.6 million in funding will leverage more than $22 million in private and public investment for preservation and conservation projects without spending taxpayers' money.”

“Through these competitive matching grants, the National Park Service and our federal, state, tribal, local government, and nonprofit partners are helping communities preserve some of our nation’s most important historic places and collections,” said National Park Service Deputy Director P. Daniel Smith. "By doing so we are saving these sites and stories for future generations.”

The Federal Save America’s Treasures program was established in 1998, and is carried out in partnership with IMLS, NEA, and NEH with the objective of preserving nationally significant historic properties and museum collections for future generations of Americans to experience, learn from, and enjoy.

From 1999 to 2017, more than 1,300 projects received $328 million to provide preservation and conservation work on nationally significant collections, artifacts, structures and sites. Requiring a dollar-for-dollar private match, these grants leveraged more than $377 million in private investment, and contributed more than 16,000 jobs to local and state economies.

In 2018, Congress appropriated funding for Save America’s Treasures from the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), which uses revenue from federal oil leases to provide assistance for a broad range of preservation assistance without expending tax dollars. The current disbursement of awards is from the 2018 appropriation.

The projects funded by the 2018 appropriation include:

• Conservation of sound recordings from Alexander Graham Bell at the Smithsonian

• Restoration of Willa Cather’s childhood home in Nebraska

• Rehabilitation of the National Soldiers’ Home in Wisconsin

• Preservation of the Casita Desiderio y Pablita Ortega in New Mexico

The Save America’s Treasures program requires applicants to leverage project funds from other sources to “match” the grant money, which is awarded after a competitive review of project proposals. Buildings and collections which have previously received Save America’s Treasures grants are not eligible to receive a second grant for the same project.

For a list of all previously funded Save America’s Treasures projects, please view the SAT Impact Map at go.nps.gov/satmap.

For more information about the grants and the Save America’s Treasures Program, please visit http://go.nps.gov/sat. An additional $13 million will be available in FY2019 funding in the fall of 2019.

National Save America’s Treasures Program Grant Recipients 

State	Project Title	Grantee	Funded Amount
Alaska Fairbanks	Kobuk River Collection Rehousing and Stabilization	University of Alaska Fairbanks	$119,585.00
California Berkeley	Conservation of The Hawk for Peace, a Stabile by Alexander Calder	Regents of the University of California	$109,576.00
California Los Angeles	Restoration of Residence A at the Aline Barnsdall Complex	Project Restore	$500,000.00
California Monterey	Repair of the First Theatre in Monterey	Monterey State Historic Park Association	$194,360.00
California San Diego	Restoration of the Botanical Building Welcome Gallery	Balboa Park Conservancy	$257,668.00
California San Francisco	Conservation of the Lost New Deal Frescos of San Francisco's Art Institute	San Francisco Art Institute	$94,000.00
Colorado Colorado Springs	Conservation of Museum Panoramic and Oversized Photographs	Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy	$95,500.00
Washington DC	Saving Sound recordings from Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory	Smithsonian Institution	$488,150.00
Florida Gainesville	Conservation of Artifacts and Records from 17th Century Franciscan Mission Site of San Juan del Puerto	University of Florida	$94,734.00
Idaho Idaho Falls	Conservation of the Wasden Archeological Collection Representing 15,000 Years of Native American Occupation on the Snake River Plain	Museum of Idaho	$172,103.00
Iowa Amana	Upper South Amana Hotel Restoration	Amana Colonies Historical Site	$131,500.00
Iowa Des Moines	Assessing and Repairing 4 Extant Buildings at Fort Atkinson Historic District	Iowa	$497,500.00
Maine Rockland	Restoration of Olson House, Site of American Artist Andrew Wyeth’s Painting, Christina’s World	William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum	$188,208.00
Massachusetts Boston	Preservation, Conservation and Digitization of Kennedy Family Collection, Scrapbooks and Albums	John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, Inc.	$500,000.00
Massachusetts Boston	Preservation of the Nantucket Lightship/LV-112	United States Lightship Museum, Inc.	$487,500.00
Mississippi Mound Bayou	Isaiah T. Montgomery House Restoration	Mississippi Heritage Trust, Inc.	$500,000.00
Mississippi Oxford	University of Mississippi Curation of Archaeological Materials and Associated Records	The University of Mississippi	$500,000.00
Nebraska Red Cloud	Restoring Willa Cather's Childhood Home	The Willa Cather Foundation	$415,000.00
New Jersey Livingston	Rehabilitation of the Adirondack Great Camp, Eagle Island	Eagle Island, Inc.	$320,775.00
New Mexico Santa Clara	Fort Bayard Museum and Education Building Restoration	The Village of Santa Clara	$125,000.00
New Mexico Chimayo	Conservation and Preservation of the Casita Desiderio y Pablita Ortega	Cornerstones Community Partnerships	$144,911.00
New York Albany	Asbestos Abatement and Remediation aboard USS SLATER	Destroyer Escort Historical Museum	$176,000.00
New York Buffalo	Richardson Olmsted Campus Roofing Repairs	Richardson Center Corporation	$400,000.00
New York New York City	Conservation of Carnegie Hall Architectural Drawings Collection	Carnegie Hall Corporation	$92,000.00
New York New York City	Conservation of the New York Historical Society's Beekman Family Coach	New-York Historical Society	$116,467.00
New York Rochester	Eastman Museum Colonnade Restoration Project	George Eastman Museum	$498,815.00
New York Ticonderoga	Restoration of Fort Ticonderoga's North Demi-lune	The Fort Ticonderoga Association	$465,000.00
North Carolina Asheville	Black Mountain College Collection Conservation	Asheville Art Museum Association, Inc.	$196,935.00
Ohio Mt. Pleasant	Preservation of the Free Labor Store/Benjamin Lundy House	Ohio Historical Society	$228,160.00
Ohio Warren	Perkins Historical Property Restoration Project	City of Warren, Ohio	$500,000.00
Pennsylvania Doylestown	Preservation of 61 (non-deed) Historical Record Books Starting in 1785	The County of Bucks	$125,000.00
Pennsylvania Pittsburgh	August Wilson House Preservation Project	Duquesne University	$499,628.00
Rhode Island Newport	Marble House Roof Restoration	The Preservation Society of Newport County	$500,000.00
Virginia Irvington	Remediation of Rising Damp at Historic Christ Church	Foundation for Historic Christ Church, Inc.	$337,500.00
Virginia Petersburg	Structural Repairs, Moisture Mitigation, and Re-roofing of the Petersburg Exchange Building	Historic Petersburg Foundation	$350,000.00
Washington Port Townsend	Rehabilitation of Fort Worden Building 305 (Historic Quartermasters Office & Storehouse)	Fort Worden Foundation	$500,000.00
Washington Seattle	Historic Concrete Rehabilitation of the Georgetown Steam Plant	Seattle City Light	$500,000.00
West Virginia Charlestown	Systems update for the home of Revolutionary Colonel Charles Washington	Friends of Happy Retreat	$132,500.00
Wisconsin Milwaukee	Renovation of “Old Main” (Building 2) National Soldiers Home Residences	Housing Authority of the City of Milwaukee	$500,000.00
Wisconsin Richland Center	Preservation of the A.D. German Warehouse	A.D. German Warehouse Conservancy, Inc.	$360,250.00
Wyoming Laramie	Digital Recordation of Site Records and Artifacts Recovered from the Hell Gap NHL Archeological Site	University of Wyoming	$260,675.00
Total Awards			$12,675,000.00

www.nps.gov
 

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