Highlighting the Work of DAR Historic Preservation Grant Recipients

May is National Historic Preservation Month! DAR is proud to have historic preservation among its main tenets of the organization, with many different programs supporting this cause. One of which is the DAR Historic Preservation Grants program, which were just chosen for the 2021-2022 year. View the full list of grantees here. Today in this blog I’ll highlight some of the previous year grants which are now completed.

When it comes to Historic Preservation, projects and suggestions are “all over the place,’ literally and figuratively. Preservation Grant requests come from Alaska to San Diego in the west and Maine to Florida in the east with the majority falling in many places in between.

Operation Green Team Foundation (OGTF) “strives to inform and motivate the community to keep Huntsville (Alabama) beautiful, educate and preserve historical heritage, and take steps to live with a decreased impact on our environment.” Their $5,000 grant, sponsored by the Twickenham Town DAR Chapter, was used to restore and preserve the Glenwood Cemetery Historic Monuments. Glenwood is the oldest surviving African-American cemetery in Huntsville and represents a significant storehouse of local history. OGTF, in the grant application, noted that it offers a “unique glimpse of a part of history that is rapidly disappearing in other cities.”

But not everything has to be a major rehabilitation project or an item from a historically specific event. The Stafford County Historical Society applied for a rather small Historic Preservation Grant to assist them in the growth of their collection of quilts and other historically significant textiles. They needed somewhat specialized equipment to display new items while ensuring that they are preserved. The Kanza DAR Chapter in Stafford, Kansas sponsored this grant so that the permanent heirloom quilt exhibit could be maintained in a proper manner while still offering patrons an opportunity to view these exceptional artifacts.

As we continue through Historic Preservation month, maybe these projects give your chapter an idea about reaching out to a not-for-profit organization in your community that could put DAR funds to good use. Or maybe your chapter has a special preservation or restoration need. Learn more about the DAR Historic Preservation Grants program here. Questions can be sent to [email protected].