Massachusetts Cultural Council and MassDevelopment awarded over $13 million from the Facilities Grant Fund in the spring, but the tail-end of COVID-19 protracted the party celebrating grantees and their projects until Monday afternoon in Lowell.
The two state agencies awarded a trio of Marblehead nonprofits a cumulative $217,000 – with the Marblehead Museum taking home the biggest check: $150,000 among the three organizations. The Washington Street nonprofit will utilize the money to preserve and restore its acquisition of the 1768 Jeremiah Lee Brick Kitchen and Slave Quarters.
“We are so grateful for the grant from Massachusetts Cultural Council,” said Lauren McCormack, the Marblehead Museum executive director. “The money will be used for the exterior and interior preservation of our new acquisition (in April 2021), the Brick Kitchen & Slave Quarters of the Jeremiah Lee Estate.”
McCormack also said the $150,000 grant has been matched through private fundraising and a Lynch Foundation grant, bringing the total amount of money raised to $300,000 for the preservation and restoration project.
“We will be able to stabilize and preserve the building, including lintel repair, masonry work, a new roof, and window repair and preservation,” McCormack said.
Marblehead Arts Association secured $60,000 for “the multi-phase restoration, renovation, and preservation of the historic 1728 King Hooper Mansion.”
The Marblehead Little Theatre, meanwhile, took home $7,000 for a systems replacement plan for its fire-house-turned-performing-arts-center on School Street.
“The MCC Systems Replacement Grant will help Marblehead Little Theatre do the necessary planning to maintain our historic firehouse theater,” Danuta Shasha, the treasurer of the Marblehead Little Theatre Board of Directors. “So much passion and investment was put into making the Marblehead Firehouse a permanent home for MLT; this helps ensure the building’s future for many years to come.”
The Marblehead Cultural Council has been quite good to Marblehead. In FY2019, the town received a $150,000 grant for the Fort Sewall Restoration Project.
