Four nonprofit organizations received grants from the Sangamon County Historical Society to fund special projects that help preserve and promote local history. The grant awards were announced Tuesday, June 21 at the Society’s annual meeting at Clayville Historic Site. Awards were presented to the following organizations:
Friends of the Original Leland Farm House Inc. - $1,000 to restore the Leland Farm House Summer Kitchen which has been moved from its original site to Washington Park. The funds will be used to reinstall the windows, a door and staircase as well as mason work for the foundation and a brick walkway outside the historic 1860s building. The building will be used to display information about the Leland family and original farmhouse.
Illinois State Museum Society – $900 to restore Vachel Lindsay’s Lincoln Top Hat at the Illinois State Museum. The 3-foot tall fiberglass version of Lincoln’s stove pipe hat was painted by artist Felicia Olin in 2009 as part of the city’s “Hats Off to Lincoln” project celebrating the 200th Anniversary of Lincoln’s birth. Being displayed outside the museum for a number of years, the hat has suffered weather damage and now needs repainting.
Oak Ridge Cemetery - $1,000 to create a brochure and map which will identify and celebrate distinguished individuals of color buried at the cemetery. The booklet will assist descendants, historians and other interested parties in locating burial markers of African Americans interred at the cemetery.
Preservation Inc. - $1,000 for supplies and labor costs associated with drywalling the damaged ceiling and walls in practice rooms around the stage of the 1908 music conservatory on the former Ursuline Academy campus. Future plans include making the building useable for music lessons for which it was originally designed.
All projects are required to be completed between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023.
For more information about the Sangamon County Historical Society check www.sangamonhistory.org or call 217-525-1961.
