The Preservation Alliance of West Virginia (PAWV) announces the opening of its application period for its Fund for Historic Schools Grant to fund pre-development, development, and architect/engineer costs for the preservation of certified historic school buildings.
PAWV has $665,000 available for the Round 1 application period, which will close at 5 p.m. on Friday, Mar. 1. PAWV intends to award 5 to 10 grants ranging from $50,000 to $300,000 by May 2024. Grant application materials are available for download at https://www.pawv.org/savingplacesgrant.html. Call 304-345-6005 if you need assistance downloading the application materials.
The Fund for Historic Schools Grant is a competitive grant program designed to encourage economic development through the renovation and preservation of certified historic school buildings in rural West Virginia communities experiencing high levels of poverty. When a school closes and is mothballed or under-utilized, it becomes subject to blight and a magnet for illegal activities. The vacant building acts as a burden on the school district, which must still pay for maintenance, security, and insurance. Communities across West Virginia want to see these special places preserved. PAWV has witnessed communities coming together to save and repurpose their former schools. This grant program will support those efforts and open the door to other historic preservation incentives and private investment.
PAWV is the statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to historic preservation in the Mountain State, and the nonprofit created the Saving Historic Places Grant Program in 2019 to provide funding that helps communities save the places that matter most to them. In 2023, PAWV developed a special subprogram called the “Fund for Historic Schools” and won a $750,000 Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grant from the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, to support the program. PAWV was one of 13 subgrant programs totaling $9.7 million in 12 states to receive this prestigious grant, which supports economic development through the preservation of historic buildings in rural communities across the country.
These grants mark the fifth year of funding for the program honoring the late Paul Bruhn, executive director of the Preservation Trust of Vermont for nearly 40 years. This is the second year PAWV has received a grant award under the program in which State and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, Certified Local Governments, and nonprofits from across the country were eligible to apply for funding to create a subgrant program to fund multiple preservation projects in their rural jurisdictions.
