May is Preservation Month and to help kick off the celebration, Preservation Maryland and the Maryland Historical Trust will present a ceremonial check for $10,000 to Main Street Middletown on Thursday, May 3rd in support of their efforts to purchase two distinctive historic buildings on West Main Street.
In the fall of 2017, Main Street Middletown was awarded a $10,000 grant from Preservation Maryland and the Maryland Historical Trust through the Heritage Fund grant program. The grant award supports Main Street Middletown’s ongoing efforts to purchase and protect two buildings in the Middletown Historic District. 19 and 21 West Main Street stand out along the street for their small size and distinctive features. Main Street Middletown sought to purchase the buildings both to preserve them for the future, but also to show the value of preservation to the community.
Main Street Middletown, located in Frederick County, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and certified Main Street. Over the years, Main Street Middleton has done extensive outreach to encourage business owners in the Historic District to use a preservation approach when working on their building including providing training and producing a book highlighting the architectural history of the community. The effort to purchase and preserve 19 and 21 West Main Street, is a valuable continuation of their mission.
Preservation Maryland Executive Director Nicholas Redding explained, “This is exactly why our Heritage Fund exists – to help communities save, protect and reutilize historic places that matter. We are so proud to support this project and look forward to seeing how Main Street Middletown uses these new spaces to complement their important work.”
The Heritage Fund, a cooperative effort of Preservation Maryland and the Maryland Historical Trust, provides direct assistance for the protection of historical and cultural resources and promotes innovative demonstration projects that can be successfully replicated to meet Maryland’s historic preservation needs. The Fund is intended to serve the needs of tangible cultural resources in Maryland. Historic sites, buildings, districts, objects, and archaeological resources are all eligible for funding.