Historic Preservation Grants Protect the Past and Invest in the Future

The Community Foundation recently awarded $337,425 in historic preservation grants to 22 organizations. These grants will restore slate roofs, deteriorating windows, and damaged floors in landmark buildings. They will also revitalize gathering spaces that allow communities to come together, even when neighbors live far apart, and preserve the heritage and experiences of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Each project is an investment in a vibrant economic future that highlights our cultural gems and sustains the organizations that protect them.

Investments in historic preservation can benefit the local economy by:

• Increasing and stabilizing property values;
• Encouraging tourism;
• Revitalizing towns and neighborhoods; and
• Creating quality, local jobs.

The Community Foundation is one of the largest funders of historic preservation projects in our eight-county region, thanks in large part to the foresight of donors who established endowment funds years or decades ago. Today, we are getting creative in order to match compelling requests with various sources of funding, leveraging competitive grantmaking resources and partnerships with donors passionate about preserving our shared history. 

The number of requests coming from the seven counties surrounding Monroe nearly doubled this year.

Preserving a Gathering Space in East Pembroke

East Pembroke Grange has been bringing people together in Genesee County for over a hundred years. Critical renovations to the hall floor and stage made possible by a grant of $15,000 will bring back the celebrations, dinners, and square dances that so many residents remember. 

“East Pembroke’s Grange Hall provides one of the only venues for gatherings in the community. Projects like this help make ours a region where everyone can benefit from historical assets,” says Annette Jiménez Gleason, senior program officer for vitality.

A Permanent Tribute to Rochester’s Oldest Black Neighborhood

Another grant of $22,155 will transform “Clarissa Uprooted” from a temporary exhibit to a permanent, widely accessible community resource in Rochester. The exhibit preserves and shares photos, maps, artifacts, and oral histories from the Clarissa Street/Third Ward community, Rochester’s oldest Black neighborhood, with a special emphasis on building connections between young people and elders. 

Connecting Donors to Historic Preservation Requests

Two grant requests were fulfilled by Community Foundation fundholders in tandem with our competitive grantmaking process. Thanks to direct donor support, historic copies of the Jewish Ledger will be digitized and made accessible online, and the last surviving monorail car that ran at Midtown Plaza will be restored and displayed at the New York Museum of Transportation.  

“Those two requests ended up being the perfect fit for some of our donors,” says Mary Hartstein, director of donor engagement and impact. “It’s a fun conversation when you have a match between someone’s passion and a high-impact proposal.” 

If you agree that every historic preservation project is an opportunity to contribute to a vibrant and inclusive future, you can join us.

The following competitive grants were made possible by the Community Foundation’s Community Impact Fund, which pools contributions from more than 100 permanent funds established specifically to support changing community needs, as well as the following funds: Elizabeth Gibson Holahan Fund for Historic Preservation I, Gonsenhauser Family Fund, Lloyd E. Klos Historical Fund, and Plumb-Miller Fund. 

2024 Historic Preservation Grants 

Avon Free Library: To preserve the Barber Memorial Building by replacing the deteriorating slate roof with a new slate roof that respects the building’s listing in the National Register of Historic Places. $10,000 

Christ Church: To repair and restore the floor of historic Wilder Hall in Christ Church Rochester’s parish house so the space can continue to safely serve meals to people experiencing homelessness and marginalized individuals. $15,000 

Church of God and Saints of Christ: To restore and preserve a historic 1886 Romanesque Revival synagogue, which now serves as a church and community center in Rochester. $15,000 

Clarissa Street Legacy: To support the transition of the Clarissa Uprooted Exhibit to a permanent, widely accessible community resource, acting as a catalyst for community pride, racial equity, and revitalization in Rochester. $22,155 

East Pembroke Grange: To repair and restore the historic 115-year-old hall’s damaged floor, eliminating insect infestation and reinforcing the stage to revitalize the building as a community meeting place in Genesee County. $15,000 

First Baptist Church: To repair the ceiling of one of the rooms as part of a series of restorative efforts to maintain the building and support the congregation that serves the entire community. $5,000 

Flower City Arts Center: To restore the exterior of its historic firehouse building located in the upper Monroe Avenue neighborhood, focusing on windows and decaying window trim, in a manner that preserves the original work while enhancing its aesthetic appeal and functionality. $20,000 

Friends & Foundation of the Rochester Public Library: Support to diversify the existing Shoulders to Stand On LGBTQIA2+ Archive by documenting underrepresented aspects of LGBTQIA2+ history and experience, including those of BIPOC, trans/non-binary, and/or differently abled persons. $18,370 

Friends of Ganondagan: The Haudenosaunee Roots, Culture, and Traditions programming series, running between September 2024 and August 2025, provides authentic engagement and experiential learning through an Indigenous lens with the focus on cultural teachings, living traditions, and contemporary life while connecting to the natural world. $14,900 

Friends of Parrott Hall, Inc.: The Friends of Parrott Hall and Coalition partners will work with a professional preservation architect to complete interior renovations and minor work on the veranda of Parrott Hall, a National Register-listed building on the Cornell AgriTech campus in Geneva. $20,000 

Friends of the Schooner Lotus, Inc: Supports the restoration of the historic wooden schooner Lotus to seaworthy condition, enabling it to pass US Coast Guard inspection as a class “T” public vessel for service in Sodus Bay and nearby coastal waters in the Northeast. $10,000 

Genesee Country Village & Museum: Exterior preservation of the 1814 MacKay Homestead includes scraping and sanding all wood surfaces, repairing and sealing cracks, reglazing windows where necessary, and priming and painting the building’s exterior. $15,000 

Genesee Valley Council on the Arts: The New Deal Museum Preservation Project, housed in its building on the former Mount Morris Tuberculosis Sanatorium, offers viewings of a 220-piece collection of paintings on rotation to the public at no cost. $10,000 

George Eastman Museum: To restore the historic Grape Arbor — a key structure in the original Rock Garden design — and make significant accessibility improvements, resulting in the long-term preservation of this historic structure for the inclusive enjoyment of future generations. $20,000 

Greater Rochester Area Branch American Association of University Women: To produce an 8-10 minute short film, “Radical Rochester: The Second Women’s Rights Convention,” highlighting the little-known 1848 Rochester convention that expanded on the Seneca Falls convention in collaboration with 1st Amendment 1st Vote. $10,000 

Naples Historical Society: The Naples Red Mill Stabilization Project Phase I consists of stabilizing and fortifying a bulging basement stone wall and cleaning out the historically significant waterwheel pit prior to creating a Naples History and Event Center in the 200(+)-year-old building. $12,000 

Rochester Broadway Theatre League: To restore the historic West Herr Performing Arts Center, focusing on returning the grandeur of its 1928 Art Deco design by replacing over 60 missing original light fixtures while making necessary upgrades and enhancements. $20,000 

Rochester Institute of Technology: To broaden access to the Rochester History journal by adding content on diverse populations and topics, implementing strategic marketing, maintaining an accessible digital version, and providing professional-quality editorial and design work to ensure this valuable, longstanding resource for local history endures. $20,000 

Seneca Falls Performing Arts Center: To support the restoration of the East facade, including the historic doors and stained glass windows, of the former First Congregational Church built in 1870 at 35 State Street in Seneca Falls. $10,000 

St. John Fisher University: As part of a larger, multi-year project to preserve the legacy of prominent African American newspaperman Howard Wilson Coles, St. John Fisher University will bring Joan Coles Howard, Coles’ surviving daughter, to Rochester to record an in-depth oral history and digitally preserve two of her father’s unpublished monographs. $20,000 

The Cobblestone Society: To restore six windows on the east-facing side of the 1834 Cobblestone Church, the oldest cobblestone church in the country and part of the National Historic Landmark Cobblestone District. $25,000 

The Dove Block Project: Supports renovations of the interior facade of the late Victorian Gothic Dove Block Building in Geneva’s historic commercial district to benefit programming. $10,000