Grant Awards
The United Church of Ludlow received five grant awards totaling $21,000 for continuing restoration work on the Church structure.
In announcing the awards, George Thomson, President of the Church, indicated that the awards will be used to underwrite the costs associated with the first project phases of the five year restoration program as well as the long-term support of professional preservationist architects and engineers.
NTHP Award
The National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) awarded a $10,000 Johanna Favrot Fund award to the Church to cover the architect and engineering professional fees associated with the five-year restoration project. In making the award, Richard Moe, President of the NTHP, noted that United Church was only one of twelve nationwide projects selected to receive this award.
The restoration work for the 111-year-old building is being performed with the assistance of preservationist architects from the firm of Keefe & Wesner, P.C. with engineering support from Zaremba-Sopko Associates.
Currently plans are being finalized to start the first phase of the renovation project this summer. This will consist of a complete reexamination of all slate and flashing on the roof. In addition, the chimney will be rebuilt from the roofline up.
According to Ralph Pace, restoration coordinator for the United Church, the Favrot Grant from NTHP will help underwrite the professional fees associated with the award and supervision of this specific project as well as the future phases planned for succeeding years.
Windham Award
He added that coverage of the cost of the roof project, plus work on the residing, was greatly assisted by two $5,000 grants from the Windham Foundation of Grafton.
These grants will be applied to the actual cost of the roofing and residing work.
Thomson indicated that the current grants would be matched by Church funds. He further noted that the Church was preparing to initiate a fund raising drive to offset expenses anticipated in the subsequent project years.
Much of the planning work performed prior to the start of actual restoration work was supported through planning grants from the Preservation Trust of Vermont (PTV). The special Robert Sincerbeaux Fund, supervised by PTV, provided two separate grants, totalling $1,000, enabling both preservationist architects and structural engineers to examine the United Church of Ludlow structure. From these examinations, the restoration committee, with the aid of the architect and engineer’s reports, was able to define the specific tasks that had to be performed to restore the building.