2003 Federal Save America's Treasures Grants

Arizona

Council Chamber, The Navajo Nation, Window Rock
Award amount: $ 250,000
The Navajo Civilian Conservation Corps constructed the Council Chamber in 1935. It has remained in continuous use as the seat of government of the Navajo Nation and is now proposed for designation as a National Historic Landmark. Funds will be used to repair a leaky roof that threatens the building and its murals.

California

SS Jeremiah O'Brien, National Liberty Ship Memorial, San Francisco
Award amount: $ 200,000
A National Historic Landmark, the SS Jeremiah O'Brien is the last surviving, fully operational vessel of the World War II Normandy invasion fleet. It is also the country's first Legacy Ship, an operational historic vessel re-activated and manned by an all-volunteer crew. Funds will be used to address corrosion that threatens the watertight integrity of the ship.

Anthropology Collection, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa Barbara
Award amount: $ 82,500
This collection contains over 65,000 cultural artifacts from indigenous peoples of western North America, including an extensive array of objects associated with the Chumash people and the oldest verified human remains in North America. The grant will be used to implement a climate control system to protect the collection.

Colorado

Naropa Audio Archive, Naropa University, Boulder
Award amount: $ 100,000
This collection holds thousands of hours of readings, lectures, and seminars recorded at Naropa University since 1974 by central figures of the post-World War II avant-garde in America. Work will included preserving original recordings in secure, climate controlled storage and making digital copies for use.

Connecticut

Lyme Art Colony Panel Paintings, Florence Griswold House, Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme
Award amount: $ 150,000
During the early 20th century, Florence Griswold operated a boarding house that became the center of American Impressionism and home to notable artists such as Childe Hassam and Henry Ward Ranger. The boarders painted more than 40 paintings on door and wall panels throughout the house. This grant will support the installation of a climate control system to preserve these paintings.

Oral History Project, American Music Archive, Yale University School of Music and Library, New Haven
Award amount: $ 148,000
This archive is dedicated to the collection and preservation of oral and video memoirs of major figures in American music. The detailed interviews with significant musicians, such as Eubie Blake, John Cage, Aaron Copeland, and Duke Ellington, are primary source materials for students and scholars. Funds will support the creation of preservation and use copies of the materials in the collection.

John Rogers Sculpture Groups and Studio, New Canaan Historical Society, New Canaan
Award amount: $ 95,000
John Rogers was the first sculptor to place work in the average American home, and his sculptural groups illustrate the customs, dress and activities of Victorian life. His 1878 National Historic Landmark studio houses one of the finest collections of Rogers Groups in the nation. This grant will support conservation of the collection and installation of a climate control and air filtration system to ensure long-term preservation of both the building and the collection.

District of Columbia

Bureau of American Ethnology Photograph Collection, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Award amount: $ 153,500
This collection is an unparalleled photographic record of American Indian life and of federal government relations with Native people. Funds will be used to provide conservation treatments and appropriate archival storage for the more than 100,000 glass plate and acetate film negatives and vintage photographic prints in the collection.

Washington Star Photograph Collection, District of Columbia Public Library, Washington, DC
Award amount: $ 75,000
The Star was Washington's afternoon newspaper from 1852 until 1981. Its photograph collection documents the significant political, social, and cultural events of the mid-20th century. This grant will be used to produce preservation copy negatives of 20,000 black and white prints in the collection and archival storage for the negatives and photographs.

Florida

Eagle Film City/Richard Norman Silent Film Studios, Jacksonville/Duval County Consolidated Government, Jacksonville
Award amount: $ 225,000
Silent filmmaker Richard Norman produced full-length feature films with African American casts for distribution to then-segregated theaters at this intact, early 20th century complex. Funds will be used to secure the building envelope in preparation for a complete restoration.

Georgia

North End Plantation Tabby Buildings, Ossabaw Island Foundation, Ossabaw Island
Award amount: $ 400,000
Predating the Civil War, these former slave cabins are rare, surviving vernacular buildings constructed of the indigenous concrete known as "tabby," which is composed of seashells and lime. Funds will be used to reverse past misguided repairs to the tabby material and to restore the buildings using appropriate preservation treatments.

Civil War Naval Flag Collection, Port Columbus National Civil War Naval Museum, Columbus
Award amount: $ 68,000
Of the hundreds of extant Civil War flags, very few are Naval flags. This grant will be used to conserve these seven Naval flags and make them available for public viewing for the first time since the Civil War.

Illinois

Riverside Water Tower, Village of Riverside
Award amount: $ 275,000
Frederick Law Olmsted's and Calvert Vaux's 1868-1869 design for Riverside, now a National Historic Landmark District, made it the first community in the country to integrate open spaces and park land into the urban environment. Public buildings such as William LeBaron Jenney's Gothic Revival Water Tower served both aesthetic and practical functions. This grant will restore masonry and water damage to this distinctive tower.

Fountain of Time, Chicago Park District, Chicago
Award amount: $ 250,000
Completed in 1922, this fountain was the result of a collaboration between Chicago sculptor Lorado Taft and Washington, DC engineer and sculptor John J. Earley. The grant will support the conservation and restoration of the fountain's reflecting pool, which has not held water for at least three decades.

Kentucky

United States Marine Hospital, Louisville/Jefferson Metropolitan Government, Louisville
Award amount: $ 375,000
Designed by Robert Mills and constructed between 1845 and 1852, this National Historic Landmark primarily served mariners involved in shipping on the inland waterways. Funds will be used to replace the roof and perform other exterior work to weatherproof the building.

Maine

Skolfield-Whittier House Collections, Pejepscot Historical Society, Brunswick
Award amount: $ 50,000
The Skolfield-Whittier House, a time capsule of life in Victorian America, is the estate of a sea captain and his family. Partially occupied until 1990, furniture is still arranged as it was in 1888 and original possessions remain where their owners left them, in closets, the attic, and basement. This grant will be used to implement a climate control system to preserve these artifacts.

Maryland

Lockhouses, Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park, Hagerstown
Award amount: $ 150,000
The C&O; Canal operated from 1828 to 1924 as a transportation route between Cumberland, Maryland, and the port of Georgetown in Washington, DC. Hundreds of original structures remain along the canal, and this grant will be used to provide preservation treatments for the building envelopes of 18 lockhouses constructed between 1830 and 1910.

Locomotive Collection, B & O Railroad Museum, Baltimore
Award amount: $ 500,000
Housed in the National Historic Landmark B & O Railroad Passenger Car Roundhouse, the museum contains one of the premier railroading collections in the world. Rare surviving examples of locomotives that changed the railroad industry and the North American landscape highlight the collection. This grant will assist with restoring eight locomotives damaged by the February 2003 collapse of half of the Roundhouse roof under the weight of more than two feet of snow.

Sound Collection, National Council for the Traditional Arts, Silver Spring
Award amount: $ 150,000
Founded in 1933, the Council is dedicated to the documentation and preservation of the folk and traditional arts in the United States. Its sound collection includes examples of the broad geographic and cultural diversity of American music, including Piedmont and Delta blues, Appalachian and Ozark ballad singing, polka, mariachi, and many more. Much of the collection is in danger of loss due to unstable original media. This grant will support conservation of the original recordings and copying to stable formats.

Massachusetts

John Quincy Adams Diary, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston
Award amount: $ 100,000
Adams' 50-volume manuscript diary spans 68 years, from 1779 to 1847, and includes a remarkable wealth of information on early 19th century America. This grant will support conservation treatments for the diary pages, spines and covers.

Gardens and Grounds, Longfellow National Historic Site, Cambridge
Award amount: $ 200,000
This National Historic Landmark served as George Washington's headquarters during the 1775-1776 Siege of Boston and later was the home of writer and educator Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This grant will be used to arrest deterioration and disease of plant materials, rejuvenate historic plantings, and restore disappearing features of the gardens and grounds.

Hemingway Collection, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston
Award amount: $ 150,000
Ernest Hemingway's widow Mary placed this collection of the famed author's papers, books, photographs, and artifacts at the Kennedy Library out of gratitude for President Kennedy's help in facilitating her travel to Cuba to retrieve items her husband left behind after Castro's takeover. This grant will enable the library to conserve the collection and provide special storage for fragile and oversize items.

Mississippi

Eudora Welty House, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson
Award amount: $ 251,000
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eudora Welty lived in this Tudor Revival style house from its construction in 1925 until her death in 2001. The house contains all her belongings and her large, comprehensive library. This grant will be used to upgrade inadequate electrical, plumbing and fire suppression systems and to address water penetration that has damaged some interior features.

L. Q. C. Lamar House, Oxford-Lafayette County Heritage Foundation, Oxford
Award amount: $ 390,000
During his career, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar drafted the Mississippi Secession Ordinance, led the "New South" movement, and served as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Secretary of the Interior. This grant will help rescue his National Historic Landmark home from structural collapse.

Missouri

Daniel Boone Home, Lindenwold University, Defiance
Award amount: $ 200,000
Constructed circa 1803 by the Boone family, this stone farmhouse is an early western example of a design inspired by the eastern Federal style. This grant will be used to repair the damaged roof, foundation, and masonry.

Nebraska

Arbor Lodge, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Nebraska City
Award amount: $ 254,000
This National Historic Landmark was the home of J. Sterling Morton, head of the Morton Salt Company. His interest in tree planting led Nebraska to declare the first official Arbor Day in 1874, a day that is now recognized in all 50 states and 12 foreign countries. This grant will support replacement of the roof and restoration of deteriorated exterior wood elements.

New Mexico

Seton Castle, Academy for the Love of Learning, Seton Village
Award amount: $ 330,000
This National Historic Landmark is the last home of 20th century American artist, author, scientist, and naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton, who helped to bring the Boy Scout movement to the United States. Funds will be used to restore damage done by water penetration and vandalism.

County Courthouse, Luna County, Deming
Award amount: $ 340,000
In 1916, forces of Mexican revolutionary Francisco "Pancho" Villa attacked the village of Columbus, New Mexico, and some of his accomplices were later captured in Mexico and returned to the Luna County Courthouse for trial by General "Blackjack" Pershing. This grant will support restoration of the exterior masonry and improvements to interior systems.

New York

Diorama Hall, Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum, Centerport
Award amount: $ 135,000
Avid naturalist William K. Vanderbilt II created Diorama Hall, designed by Warren and Wetmore, to house his natural history collection on his Long Island summer estate. American landscape artist Henry Hobart Nichols painted the hall's nine natural history dioramas. This grant will be used to restore the diorama exhibits, which were closed due to deterioration in 1996.

Fort Ticonderoga, Fort Ticonderoga Association, Ticonderoga
Award amount: $ 275,000
This National Historic Landmark fort was the scene of an important French victory in the Seven Years' War and the first American victory in the Revolutionary War. An early 20th century restoration of the fort used inadequate materials that have been damaged and destroyed by normal weather cycles, leading to structural instability in portions of the wall. Funds will be used to restore the south curtain wall, where these problems are most severe.

Motion Picture Collection, George Eastman House, Rochester
Award amount: $ 380,000
Introduced in 1912, 28mm film revolutionized motion picture viewing with a format that was easier to handle than the customary 35mm film used for theaters. The 28mm format made it possible to show movies at home and in schools, clubs and churches. However, the film enjoyed only brief popularity and was supplanted in the 1920s by the even smaller 16mm film. This grant will support the transfer of 28mm films onto contemporary archival film formats, making films that have been unviewed for 80 years available to scholars and the public.

Jean Hasbrouck House, Huguenot Historical Society, New Paltz
Award amount: $ 250,000
This National Historic Landmark is one of the few surviving late 17th and early 18th century dwellings built by the French Huguenots who founded New Paltz. The grant will support the restoration of the building's north wall, which is close to structural collapse due to foundation failure.

Eldridge Street Synagogue, The Eldridge Street Project, Inc., New York
Award amount: $ 300,000
Completed in 1887, this National Historic Landmark was the first synagogue constructed in the United States by Eastern European Jews. It served the immigrants of New York's Lower East Side. This grant will assist in the restoration of the pressed brick, terra cotta, and bluestone elements on the building's imposing faÁade.

George Balanchine Foundation Video Archives, George Balanchine Foundation, New York
Award amount: $ 50,000
Regarded as the world's greatest contemporary choreographer of ballet, Russian-born George Balanchine immigrated in 1933 to the United States, where he revolutionized the dance world and founded the esteemed School of American Ballet. This grant will support the archival video recording of Balanchine's original dancers and role-creators teaching younger dancers the choreography of many of Balanchine's major works.

Olana, Olana State Historic Site/Olana Partnership, Hudson
Award amount: $ 250,000
This National Historic Landmark is the Persian-inspired home that Hudson River School painter Frederic Edwin Church designed for himself, with the assistance of architect Calvert Vaux. The grant will support the restoration of its severely deteriorated Studio Tower and its six prominent chimneys.

General Electric Photograph Collection, Schenectady Museum, Schenectady
Award amount: $ 100,000
This collection of over 850,000 photographic prints and negatives documents the history of the General Electric Company, its factories, products and product installations, and employees. The grant will provide appropriate archival storage for the images in this important collection.

Round Lake Auditorium, Village of Round Lake
Award amount: $ 225,000
The auditorium is the centerpiece of Round Lake, an intact 19th century camp meeting complex. It houses the oldest, largest, three keyboard tracker pipe organ remaining in the United States. Funds will be used to repair the auditorium's deteriorated wood framing and masonry foundation so that the building can continue in active community use.

Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion, Ukranian Institute of America, New York
Award amount: $ 270,000
This National Historic Landmark, an outstanding example of the picturesque Neo-French Gothic style, was the home of Harry F. Sinclair, founder of Sinclair Oil and Refining Company and a major figure in the Teapot Dome Scandal. The grant will support the replacement of deteriorated electrical wiring and interior drainage systems.

Perimeter Fence, New York Botanical Garden, New York
Award amount: $ 200,000
This formal perimeter fence designed by Brinley and Holbrook gives visitors their first impression of the New York Botanical Garden, a National Historic Landmark Funds will support restoration of the deteriorated stone and iron components of the fence.

North Carolina

North Carolina Archeological Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Award amount: $ 450,000
This collection contains over 5 million artifacts and associated records covering 12,000 years of history. The mostly pre-Columbian collection has great significance for American Indians. This grant will support re-housing the collection in a climate-controlled facility.

Ohio

Showboat Majestic, Cincinnati Recreation Commission, Cincinnati
Award amount: $ 150,000
This National Historic Landmark is the last historic American floating theater and the only existing intact showboat. In 1969, the original wood hull was encapsulated in a steel hull to meet safety regulations. Condensation within the steel hull led to the deterioration of structural wood beams and braces, which will be reinforced with this grant.

Cincinnati Union Terminal, Cincinnati Museum Center, Cincinnati
Award amount: $ 250,000
Constructed in 1933, this is one of the last grand scale Art Deco terminals in the country. The massive roof of this National Historic Landmark is one of the largest freestanding half-domes in the world. The grant will be used to address deterioration of the roof and consequent water penetration problems.

Oklahoma

Televised Political Commercial Archive, University of Oklahoma, Norman
Award amount: $ 135,000
Established in 1985, the archive contains more than 80,000 examples of political advertising dating to the earliest years of television. The ads are for candidates running for local, state and national offices as well as for issues and ballot initiatives. Many are in obsolete formats. This grant will support the creation of preservation and use copies in appropriate archival formats.

Oregon

Thomas Kay Woolen Mill, Mission Mill Museum Association, Salem
Award amount: $ 250,000
The mill is a Pacific Northwest example of an Atlantic coast and English type of textile mill, complete with textile manufacturing machinery. It demonstrates an entire manufacturing process by direct-drive waterpower. This grant will be used to restore deteriorated exterior masonry and windows to prevent water penetration of the structure.

Pennsylvania

Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, Bucks County Department of Parks and Recreation, Doylestown
Award amount: $ 240,000
This National Historic Landmark still produces tiles in the handcrafted tradition of its founder Henry Chapman Mercer. The 1911-1912 building is constructed of Mercer's own hand-mixed reinforced concrete and ornamented with his tiles and tile mosaics. The concrete construction contains no expansion joints, and this grant will be used to repair spalling and cracking inherent to this idiosyncratic construction method.

City Hall Tower Sculpture, City of Philadelphia Department of Arts and Culture
Award amount: $ 300,000
Completed in 1901, City Hall is a masterpiece of the Second Empire style and a National Historic Landmark, enhanced by 24-foot-high sculpture figure groups and massive eagles at the tower's base by the esteemed modern sculptor Alexander Milne Calder. This grant will provide conservation treatments for the Calder works.

Cliveden, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Philadelphia
Award amount: $ 300,000
This National Historic Landmark was constructed from 1763 to 1767 as the country house of colonial jurist Benjamin Chew, the last English Crown-appointed Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Germantown, which occurred in the house and on the grounds, was a turning point in the Revolutionary War. Grant funds will support the installation of a climate control system to protect the house against moisture penetration and rising damp.

Blacksmith Shop, Cambria Iron Works, Johnstown Area Heritage Association, Johnstown
Award amount: $ 261,925
This 1864 blacksmith shop produced forged metal equipment and tools used throughout the National Historic Landmark iron works. The grant will be used to stabilize the building envelope in preparation for a complete restoration.

Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary Collections, The Library Company of Philadelphia, Philadelphia
Award amount: $ 300,000
In preparation for the 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth in 2006, this grant will support the conservation of significant items associated with Franklin that are housed in the collections of more than a dozen institutions, including the first issue of the first edition of Poor Richard's Almanack, a Charles Willson Peale portrait of Franklin, and Franklin's electrical machine.

Early American Sheet Music Collection, Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia
Award amount: $ 135,000
This 200,000 item collection, which includes several rare early editions of "The Star Spangled Banner," spans three centuries and is one of the most comprehensive such collections in the United States. The library will use this grant to conserve and provide appropriate archival storage for the collection.

Wright Brothers Aeronautical Engineering Collection, The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia
Award amount: $ 60,000
Orville Wright bequeathed this collection of archival records and artifacts to the Franklin Institute upon his death in 1948. This grant will provide conservation treatments for the 300 items in the collection.

Rhode Island

John N. A. Griswold House, Newport Art Museum and Art Association, Newport
Award amount: $ 250,000
The 1862 Griswold House, designed by Richard Morris Hunt and located in the Bellevue Avenue National Historic Landmark District, is generally considered to be the first and an outstanding example of the Stick style of architecture. Funds will be used to improve the antiquated systems that could lead to a disastrous fire in this frame house.

Touro Synagogue, Society of Friends of Touro Synagogue, Newport
Award amount: $ 375,000
Located in the Newport National Historic Landmark District and designed by noted colonial architect Peter Harrison, Touro is the oldest standing synagogue in the United States. It is an excellent example of classical Georgian architecture, with Sephardic Jewish elements. The grant will be used to reinforce the overloaded roof trusses and to restore exterior architectural features.

South Carolina

Old City Jail, School of the Building Arts, Charleston
Award amount: $ 500,000
The 1802 Gothic style jail includes an addition in the 1820s by noted architect Robert Mills. Located in Charleston's National Historic Landmark District, it has been vacant for over 60 years. This grant will support stabilization of the building envelope in preparation for a complete restoration and subsequent return to active use as a school of the building arts.

Tennessee

Acetate and Vinyl Recording Transcriptions, Country Music Foundation, Nashville
Award amount: $ 214,000
This collection of over 14,000 transcriptions from the 1930s to the 1960s was originally created as temporary recordings intended to be played only a few times. Many of the recordings, such as live Grand Ole Opry NBC Network Radio Broadcasts of noted country music performers, are duplicated nowhere else. The grant will support preservation and conservation treatments to address the physical deterioration of the collection due to age and previous improper storage.

Texas

Mission Concepcion, San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, San Antonio
Award amount: $ 215,000
This National Historic Landmark mission is the oldest unreconstructed Spanish Colonial church in the United States. Completed in 1760, the mission structures are almost entirely the original colonial construction and include delicate frescoes on the interior. Funds will be used to improve drainage to redirect water away from the building in order to alleviate rising damp that threatens the structure.

Elisabet Ney Studio Formosa, City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department
Award amount: $ 250,000
A classically trained German sculptor who immigrated to America in 1871, Elisabet Ney built Formosa to her own design in 1892. The studio now houses a collection of her work. Funds will be used to address water penetration into the building.

Vermont

Calvin Coolidge Homestead, Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, Plymouth
Award amount: $ 200,000
The homestead National Historic Landmark District includes 11 buildings at the center of the village of Plymouth. The grant will be used to install a fire suppression system in these frame buildings.

Robbins & Lawrence Armory and Machine Shop, American Precision Museum, Windsor
Award amount: $ 200,000
Machine tools that improved the production of interchangeable parts, which stimulated mass production and America's Industrial Revolution, were manufactured in this National Historic Landmark that now houses the American Precision Museum. Funds will be used to repair the deteriorated roof and restore exterior masonry.

Virginia

Stratford Hall, Robert E. Lee Memorial Association, Stratford
Award amount: $ 300,000
This National Historic Landmark was the family home of the Lees, whose notable members included Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, signers of the Declaration of Independence, and Civil War General Robert E. Lee. This grant will support the installation of a climate control system to protect the 18th century house and its collections.

Washington

Ozette Artifact Collection, Makah Cultural and Research Center, Makah Tribe, Neah Bay
Award amount: $ 152,000
This collection of over 55,000 artifacts was excavated from the village of Ozette, which has been occupied for several thousand years by the Makah Indian Nation. It provides a remarkable view of Northwest Coast material culture prior to European contact. This grant will support an improved climate control system to preserve this important collection.

City Hall, Jefferson County Historical Society, Port Townsend
Award amount: $ 280,000
City Hall is a pivotal structure in the Port Townsend National Historic Landmark District. Funds will be used to repair the exterior sandstone elements of the 1892 building, which have deteriorated due to age and to the past application of an incompatible cement coating.

Wisconsin

Milton House, Milton Historical Society, Milton
Award amount: $ 275,000
This National Historic Landmark served as a transfer point on the Underground Railroad. Funds will be used to reinforce structural members weakened by an insect infestation and to correct past, inappropriate maintenance treatments.

National Endowment for the Arts
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