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UVMC Receives $98,000 Grant for Historic Preservation

December 07, 2018

LEBANON, NH –The Upper Valley Music Center (UVMC), a community music school in Lebanon, has received a $97,980 grant award from the NH Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP) to support the exterior renovation UVMC’s home at 8 South Park Street, including masonry repair, preservation of a portico, and a roof replacement.

“We are grateful LCHIP’s investment in our community” said Ben Van Vliet, UVMC’s Executive Director. “The LCHIP award will enable UVMC to preserve the Kendrick-Wood House, providing a home for music education in Lebanon and community access to this historic resource for generations to come.”

UVMC will use the LCHIP grant to preserve the exterior features of the Kendrick-Wood House, an 1816 brick building on Colburn Park in Lebanon which UVMC purchased from a law office in 2017. With LCHIP funds and an additional $100,000 grant from the Timken Foundation of Canton, UVMC will be preserving the building’s character-defining brick masonry, repairing the Colonial Revival entrance portico, painting and repairing siding, and replacing the roof. These two grants are crucial to maintain stewardship of the historic building, covering expensive repairs to chimneys, a roof in the last years of its life, and damaged masonry.

The forty-two projects receiving matching grants from LCHIP are spread all across the state. Sixteen natural resource conservation projects will be supported by $2 million while twenty-six historic resource projects will receive $1.9 million, all in matching grants.

Historic resource projects will help with rehabilitation of structures ranging in date from 1721 (Ladd-Gilman House, Exeter) to 1916 (Whitcomb Hall, Swanzey). The natural resource projects will ensure permanent protection of more than 13,000 acres in parcels ranging from ten acres in Durham to over 6,000 acres in Gorham. Grant recipients are required to provide at least one matching dollar from another source for every dollar received from the state through LCHIP. This year, they will provide more than $3.70 for each state dollar. The smallest grant is $7,500 for a planning study to help the Great North Woods Committee for the Arts explore what is needed to convert the former Shrine of Our Lady of Grace into a cultural and arts center. The largest grant of $350,000 will help the Southeast Land Trust of New Hampshire create the Birch Ridge Community Forest in New Durham.

The eighteen-member LCHIP Board of Directors selects the grant recipients as the culmination of a rigorous application and review process. LCHIP’s Board Chair, Amanda Merrill of Durham, observes, “The LCHIP Board and staff have the responsibility and privilege of helping to protect natural, cultural and historic resources across New Hampshire. It is a pleasure to work with dedicated colleagues from local government, citizens groups and non-profits to preserve the places that make our state special.”

About the Upper Valley Music Center

The Upper Valley Music Center is a non-profit community music school based in Lebanon, NH, serving more than 1,000 students a year from across the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire. UVMC’s expert faculty work with beginning through advanced students and teach programs designed for ages birth through adulthood. Founded in 1995, UVMC’s programs have expanded to include early childhood music, Suzuki and traditional lessons on a variety of instruments, group classes, and ensemble opportunities. UVMC hosts more than 50 student, faculty, and guest artist peformances throughout the year, offers music camps during the summer, and sponsors the Upper Valley Chamber Orchestra and the Juneberry Community Chorus. For more information about UVMC visit www.uvmusic.org or call (603) 448-1642.

About New Hampshire’s Land and Community Heritage Investment Program

The New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program is an independent state authority that provides matching grants to New Hampshire communities and non-profits to protect and preserve the state’s most important natural, cultural and historic resources. Its legislatively mandated mission is to ensure the perpetual contribution of these resources to the economy, environment, and quality of life in New Hampshire. Prior to this year’s grant awards listed here, since its inception in 2000, the program has provided 425 grants which have helped to conserve more than 280,000 acres of land for food production, water quality, ecological values, timber management and recreation including hunting and fishing and supported 257 projects to rehabilitate historic structures and sites. Grants have been awarded in all parts of the state and in 157 of New Hampshire’s 234 communities. Forty-three million dollars of state money have led to a total project value of more than $299 million. LCHIP grants are supported by fees on four documents recorded at the Registry of Deeds in every county of the state. For more information visit lchip.org or call (603)224-4113.