FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JULY 16, 2010
Annapolis, MD: Four Rivers: The Heritage Area of Annapolis, London Town & South County is pleased to announce grant awards from the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority (MHAA) for four major heritage projects in Annapolis and southern Anne Arundel County. Project grant funds of $188,000 will support development of regional heritage-related projects totaling more than $434,000. All grants are fully matched at the local level, leveraging non-state funding to develop new projects, products, and activities consistent with the city-, county- and state-approved heritage area Management Plan. In addition to the four project grants, Four Rivers received $100,000 for management assistance, for a total of $288,000 in MHAA funding in the heritage area for the current fiscal year.
MHAA funding will support the following organizations with heritage-oriented projects: Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts (MHCA) received a capital grant in the amount of $90,000 for the modernization of restrooms. Maryland Hall, housed in the former Annapolis High School, is one of the primary hubs for arts and culture in Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, and hosts 100,000 visitors and students from Maryland and the surrounding region each year. This modernization project is designed improve the visitor experience at Maryland Hall while preserving and protecting the historic structure in its adaptive reuse as a cultural and educational institution.
The Londontown Foundation received a grant in the amount of $50,000 for preliminary research and planning (Phase 1) of the reconstruction of the 18th-century Rumney-West Ordinary within the historic area of Historic London Town and Gardens in Edgewater. This reconstruction follows two earlier reconstruction projects at the site, the Lord Mayor’s Tenement and the Carpenter’s Shop, and is a critical next step in the Foundation’s Master Plan. Phase 1 will involve archaeological excavations and related historical and interpretative research.
The Historic Annapolis Foundation (HAF) received a grant in the amount of $36,000 for “Project Run-A-Way,” a series of provocative and unique programs that will involve the public in exploring the history of slave and servant labor in the Chesapeake region. The content of the program will derive from primary source runaway advertisements from the Maryland Gazette and the Maryland Republican from the colonial period to emancipation (1727-1864). The program will include an online database, blog and webpage, as well as a future traveling exhibition and multimedia presentation including 10 dynamic, living history characters.
The United States Lighthouse Society received a grant in the amount of $12,000 for the implementation of the recently-completed “Interpretation & Furnishings Plan” for the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse, which was funded in part by a Four Rivers Heritage Area mini-grant. The project includes development and presentation of interpretive exhibits throughout the lighthouse. Most areas of the lighthouse will be interpreted for the period of 1900-1910, but one room will be interpreted to represent the U.S. Coast Guard era of the 1960s through 1980s.
The management grant to the Four Rivers Heritage Area supports activities such as the annual mini-grants program, the annual heritage awards, regional interpreter training, networking meetings for site directors and managers, educational workshops, online resources, and economic development and capacity-building initiatives. For more information, please call Four Rivers Executive Director Carol Benson at 410-222-1805.
