Essex National Heritage Area Essex National Heritage Area
2007 Grant Recipients

On June 11th, ENHC announced its 2007 ENHC Partnership Grant recipients during a breakfast ceremony held at Glen Magna Farms in Danvers. In remarks made, praise was given to the stewardship efforts of the 38 municipal and nonprofit organizations receiving a total of $112,000 in matching grants. Now in its tenth year, the ENHC Partnership Grant Program is providing financial assistance to 17 communities for heritage projects in five categories: education, interpretation, preservation, trails & greenways, and archives conservation.

Among the grants announced was the third recipient of the Thomas M. Leonard Partnership Grant for Education, a grant to honor the manifold contributions of ENHC's founding president. ENHC has now provided over 250 grants to recipients in all 34 Essex National Heritage Area communities.

2007 Partnership Grant Projects Include:

 

Beverly

The Food Project - North Shore
Heritage Education – The 2007 Thomas M. Leonard Grant Recipient
This project will provide Essex County youth with a hands-on agriculture curriculum through which they come to understand that healthy soil, bio-diversity, and local farms are invaluable and critical resources requiring protection.
Partners Include: The Trustees of Reservations

 

Boxford

Boxford Historical Society
Heritage Preservation
Restore foundation and timber frame of the ca. 1865 carriage barn adjacent to the Holyoke-French House to provide expanded exhibit space for the society’s collections relating to Boxford’s agricultural and commercial past.
Partners Include: Town of Boxford Community Preservation Committee

 

Danvers

Town of Danvers
Heritage Preservation
Architectural plans, bid documents, and contractor services resulting in the restoration and recreation of the front door and vestibule of the 1855 Danvers Town Hall, the oldest town-owned building still in active use.

 

Danvers Historical Society
Heritage Preservation
Paint, window restoration, and other repairs to exterior of the ca. 1750 Jeremiah Page House, which houses the offices of the Danvers Historical Society.
Partners Include: Town of Danvers Preservation Commission, Historic Danvers, Inc., Danvers Preservation Fund, Inc.

 

Gloucester

Gloucester Historical Burial Ground Committee
Heritage Preservation
The municipal committee will oversee creation of a preservation and restoration master plan for the First Parish Burial Ground, Gloucester’s oldest dating from 1633.
Partners Include: City of Gloucester, Cape Ann Historical Association, Gloucester Civic and Garden Council

 

Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center
Heritage Interpretation
The Partnership Grant will be used to create a Collaborative Fishing Industry Brochure that will tell different parts of the story of the Gloucester fishing industry.
Partners Include: Essex Historical Society & Shipbuilding Museum, Cape Ann Historical Association, Gloucester Adventure Inc.

 

Hamilton

Asbury Camp Meeting Corporation
Heritage Preservation
Stabilize and restore the 1894 Tabernacle building, the last remaining open-sided wooden tabernacle in the country.

 

Haverhill

Essex Chamber Music Players
Heritage Education
The Essex Chamber Music Players will provide educational concerts and classes on Merrimack Valley & Essex County cultural history with performing musicians, composers, and in historian for the Haverhill Middle Schools.
Partners Include: Consentino School, Haverhill Historical Society, Northern Essex Community College

 

Haverhill Trails Committee
Trails & Greenways
The volunteer Haverhill Trails Committee will create and publish a guide to Haverhill’s 11 publicly accessible recreational trails and open spaces, including maps, photos, and information on each site’s history, geology, and indigenous flora and fauna.
Partners Include: Merrimack Valley Planning Commission, Tattersall Farm, Whittier's Birthplace

 

Ipswich

Ipswich River Watershed Association
Trails & Greenways
The public's use of Riverbend, IRWA's new headquarters, will be enhanced by the design and fabrication of informational signs and the creation of a property map and brochure.
Partners Include: Middleton Stream Team, Ipswich Stream Team, Ipswich Rotary Club

 

Ipswich Visitor Center
Heritage Interpretation
Funds will be used to produce 2008/2009 visitor brochures for the Town of Ipswich.
Partners Include: Ipswich Chamber of Commerce

 

The Trustees of Reservations
Archives & Historical Records
Improved stewardship and access will result from archival preservation surveys of two special collections in the Appleton Farms archives: family photo-album and works-of-art on paper.

 

Lawrence

Immigrant City Archives, d/b/a The Lawrence History Center
Archives & Historical Records
Archival processing of recently discovered and currently inaccessible Urban Redevelopment records that document the significant local impact of a national phenomenon.
Partners Include: Lawrence Public Library

 

UMass Lowell/ Tsongas Industrial History Center
Heritage Education
This project will provide in-school "Farm to Factory" programs and field visits to the Tsongas Center and Lowell National Historical Park for 20-25 classes of Grade 3 Lawrence students through the National Parks as Classrooms for Lawrence: Change in the Making program.
Partners Include: Lowell National Historic Park, UMass Lowell Graduate School of Education

 

Lynn

Lynn Investigating in Neighborhood Corp.
Heritage Education
LINC and the Friends of Lynn Heritage State Park will host a concert and picnic during the Friendship’s visit to Lynn on Saturday August 18 th from 1 to 4 p.m. for families and youth, emphasizing historic music.
Partners Include: Friends of Lynn Heritage State Park

 

Lynn Museum & Historical Society
Heritage Interpretation
This project, entitled, 24 Hours in the Life of Lynn: A Photo Documentary, will feature a photo exhibition and photo contest that will document life in the city of Lynn in the early twenty-first century for the Lynn Museum’s photo archives.
Partners Include: Greater Lynn Photographic Association, KIPP Academy Charter School of Lynn, The Daily Item of Lynn

 

Newbury

Newbury Historical Commission
Heritage Preservation
Full restoration of the cedar-shingle roof, windows, doors and eaves of the late 18 th Century Lower Green Schoolhouse, the last to remain in its original form.
Partners Include: Planning Office, Town of Newbury

 

Newburyport

Historical Society of Old Newbury
Heritage Preservation
Restoration of 58 original wooden windows dating to 1808 in the Society’s home, the Caleb Cushing House, a National Historic Landmark.

 

Old South, First Presbyterian Church
Heritage Preservation
Exterior restoration, including minor structural repairs, stripping and repainting of Old South, which was built in 1756 and remains one of the oldest meetinghouses in the state.
Partners Include: Newburyport Area Industrial Development Foundation, Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Demoulas Foundation

 

Peabody

Higgins Middle School
Heritage Education
The General Gideon Foster Chocolate Bar Project will create, design and market General Gideon Foster Chocolate Bars modeled after those Foster produced in our community in the 1770's.
Partners Include: Peabody Institute Library, Peabody Historical Society, Peabody Access Telecommunications, Inc.

 

Rockport

Thacher Island Association
Heritage Preservation
Comprehensive exterior and interior restoration of the 124-foot tall South Lighthouse Tower, one of two granite towers built in 1861 and designated as a National Historic Landmark.
Partners Include: Thacher Island Town Committee

 

Salem

Peabody Essex Museum
Heritage Interpretation
Funds will be used to create a Fun with Architecture Discovery Guide that will introduce families to architectural elements found in Salem.
Partners Include: National Park Service

 

The Witch House, City of Salem
Heritage Preservation
A historic structures report providing essential building and historical information will help the city better preserve and interpret the ca. 1642-1675 Judge Jonathan Corwin House, the only extant structure with direct ties to the Salem witchcraft trails of 1692.

 

The Writer's Group, Salem Council on Aging
Heritage Interpretation
Personal Perspectives of a Changing Salem will publish and market personal, written perspectives that draw on individual first-hand knowledge, recorded memory, and research compiled by Salem seniors.
Partners Include: Salem Council on Aging, North Shore Community College/Cummings Foundation, Salem Cultural Council

 

Salisbury

Town of Salisbury
Trails & Greenways
Design, construct and installation of six interpretative signs along the 1.4 mile Eastern Marsh Trail, a section of both the Coastal Trails Network and Border to Boston Trail.
Partners Include: Salisbury Coastal Trails, Salisbury Taxpayers Association, Salisbury Point Railroad Historical Society

 

Topsfield

Town of Topsfield
Trails & Greenways
Development of a recreational trail on a former railroad corridor running through in the center of Topsfield and forming a section of the regional Border to Boston Trail.
Partners Include: National Park Service

 

Wenham

Wenham Museum
Heritage Interpretation
Funds will be used to organize and promote an invitational quilt weekend with exhibits of over 70 quilts from ten Essex County historical societies and museums hosted by the Wenham Museum.
Partners Include: Andover Historical Society, Beverly Historical Society, Boxford Historical Society, Cape Ann Historical Association, Haverhill Historical Society, Ipswich Historical Society, Lynn Museum, Marblehead Museum & Historical Society, and North Andover Historical Society

 

Regional

 Essex County Forum - Smart Growth
Heritage Preservation
Creation of an electronic guidebook documenting 15 projects that demonstrate various ways in which Smart Growth tools can be utilized to preserve Essex County’s natural, cultural, and historic resources.
Partners Include: Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance, Executive Office of Environmental Affairs, Essex County Greenbelt Association

 

Essex County/Merrimack Valley Buy Local Program
Heritage Interpretation
People who shop at farms stands and farmers' markets will receive bumper stickers to recognize their contribution and to encourage other people to visit BuyFresh.org.
Partners Include: Essex County Farm Bureau, Farmers in Essex County, Essex Conservation District

 

ENHA Satellite Visitor Centers
The following visitor information centers will receive 2007 Partnership Grant funds for their continued operations and interpretation of the resources in the Essex National Heritage Area:

 

Past Spotlights

2006 Grant Recipients

Wenham Museum

Town of Amesbury

Town of Nahant

The Trustees of Reservations

Haverhill Historical Society

Stephen Phillips Trust House

Historic New England