National Park Service Awards $10 Million to Historic Sites and Structures in 9 States to Celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary

News Release Date: August 22, 2024

Contact: [email protected]

WASHINGTON - The National Park Service (NPS) today awarded $10 million in funding from the Semiquincentennial Grant Program, an initiative commemorating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

Created by Congress in 2020 and funded through the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), Semiquincentennial Grants fund projects that restore and preserve sites and structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places that commemorate the founding of the nation. Grants from the program's 3rd year will support 19 historic preservation projects across 9 states.

"Since its founding, our nation has been shaped by an exceptionally diverse collection of cultures, events, and places" said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams. "The Semiquincentennial Grant Program supports our efforts to present a more complete telling of our country's history as we approach its 250th anniversary in 2026, and beyond."

Established in 1977 and administered by NPS, the HPF has provided more than $2 billion in historic preservation grants to states, Tribes, local governments, and nonprofit organizations. HPF funds may be appropriated by Congress to support a variety of historic preservation projects to help preserve the nation's cultural resources.

HPF grant programs managed by NPS fund preservation of America's premier cultural resources and historic places in underrepresented communities, rural areas, and at historically black colleges and universities, as well as sites key to the representation of Tribal heritage, African American civil rights, the history of equal rights in America, and the nation's founding.

The HPF, which uses revenue from federal offshore oil and gas leases, supports this broad range of preservation projects without expending tax dollars. The intent behind the HPF is to mitigate the loss of nonrenewable resources through the preservation of other irreplaceable resources.

Applications for next year's round of Semiquincentennial Grants will open in the fall of 2024. $7 million in funding will be available.

This year's grants will support projects like:

Patronato San Xavier will use funds to rehabilitate San Xavier del Bac, a baroque mission church in the village of Wa:k in Tucson, Ariz., which was built between 1783 and 1797 and is one of just a few in the country still ministering to the descendants of the Indigenous community that built it. The church is one of the finest examples of Mexican baroque architecture in the United States and was one of the first buildings to be named a National Historic Landmark. Structural and architectural rehabilitation of interior features as well as the ornate retablo facade at the entrance will help the church survive for another 200 years.

Friends of North Leverett Sawmill will use funds to rehabilitate and restore The Slarrow Sawmill's original historic components and allow it to function as a cultural and industrial history museum. The sawmill was built 1774 in Leverett, Mass., by Captain Joseph Slarrow, a lieutenant in the Continental Army and later captain during the Revolutionary War. The mill is inextricably linked to the development of the historic hamlet of North Leverett. It was sold in 1779 to Major Richard Montague, who fought in the French and Indian Wars and later served under George Washington. Remarkably, the mill continued to operate until the early 1990s, including during World War II when it cut 45-foot timbers for the keels of Navy minesweepers.

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