Delaware Preservation Fund

DELAWARE PRESERVATION FUND ANNOUNCES 24 GRANT AWARDS TO PRESERVE HISTORIC PLACES 

Continuing its 23-year program of supporting Delaware’s historic property owners, in the 2024 round, the Delaware Preservation Fund (DPF) announced 24 grant awards totaling $124,122 for sites in New Castle, Kent, and Sussex Counties. Funded projects for 2024 included 16 historic houses, nine church buildings, a bank, a fire control tower, a cemetery, a mill, and several types of historic outbuildings.

Several of the properties that received grants are museums owned by non-profit organizations and open to visitors. These include the George Read House in New Castle, the Taylor’s Bridge School in Blackbird, the Winterthur Museum’s gatehouse, the bank building owned by Historic Odessa Foundation, the Governor Ross Mansion in Seaford, and the Parson Thorne Mansion in Milford. Private homeowners also received funding again this year, including projects in Wilmington, Newark, and Laurel.

Jeremy Rothwell, the President of the Fund’s Board of Directors, points out that the organization was able to make a larger impact this year due to a generous contribution of $50,000 from the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, as well as a $25,000 grant to support projects in New Castle County given by Matt Meyer, County Executive, and the New Castle County Council. “Every year,” Rothwell notes, “we have to turn down strong applications for historic places that are deserving of support, but for which there is not enough funding. But this year, thanks to the DHCA’s support and New Castle County’s contribution, we didn’t have to turn down very many.” The Fund received 34 qualified applications for the 2024 grant program, the majority of which were selected for funding.

One of the managers of the program, Michael Emmons, Jr., of the Center for Historic Architecture and Design (CHAD) at the University of Delaware, notes that even small grants like those issued by the Delaware Preservation Fund can make a large and timely impact. One of the projects funded this year helped repair a failing 170-year-old structural system under St. Daniel’s Community Church, a historically Black church built around 1855 in the Iron Hill area of Newark, where the floor was sagging and a column supporting an upper gallery was sinking.

While the Delaware Preservation Fund has historically supported physical, bricks-and-mortar type projects, such as new roofs, porch restorations, and masonry repairs, it has also recently begun considering applications for preservation planning projects. Cate Morrissey, also of the Center for Historic Architecture and Design, suggests this is an important new category of work for the Fund. “Often times, an engineering assessments or a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places is a crucial first step toward saving a historic building,” Morrissey noted. One such award made by the Fund during the last grant cycle was subsequently added to the National Register last fall.

The Fund is now accepting applications for its 2025 grant cycle and the due date is February 1, 2025.

For questions concerning the DPF grants, please EMAIL the Fund.

About the Delaware Preservation Fund

The Delaware Preservation Fund provides small grants to owners of historic properties, supporting both physical restoration and preservation planning. The Delaware Preservation Fund was created by Preservation Delaware in 2000, with seed money generously provided by the Delaware General Assembly and the Longwood and Welfare Foundations.

The mission of the Delaware Preservation Fund is to assist in the preservation of the architectural heritage and the historic built environment of Delaware, through financial assistance to owners of historic properties.

The Fund’s programs target impactful work that preserves the historic character of buildings individually listed on (or eligible for) the National Register of Historic Places, or that are contributing elements in a designated National Register historic district, or that are recognized / considered eligible for local government designation. Historic resources such as cemeteries, ships, fountains, statuary, or railroad cars that may be listed individually, or which contribute to local or National Register historic districts, also qualify for consideration. Grant applications for preservation planning activities are also now eligible for consideration, including architectural/engineering planning or National Register nominations.

All work funded by the Delaware Preservation Fund must comply with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, including preservation, restoration, or rehabilitation activities.

All assistance is available regardless of an applicant’s race, age, religion, gender, origin, disability, or familial status.

Delaware Preservation Fund, Inc

Board of Directors

Jeremy Rothwell (President), Smyrna Senior Planner

Dan Parsons (Secretary), Sussex County Preservation Planner

Michael McGrath (Treasurer), Preservation Delaware

Mark Chura, Principal, Chura & Associates

Abdullah Muhammad, Historian/Preservation Delaware Board of Directors

Michael McConnell. State of Delaware, Office of Management and Budget

Victoria Brennan, Office of the Controller General

C Russell McCabe, II, Governor’s representative

Elizabeth Hatch, New Castle County Preservation Planner

For more information, please email DPF@PreservationDE.org