In 2020, through a grant from the NYC Green Relief & Recovery Fund, the Historic House Trust was able to re-grant $40,000 in immediate financial assistance to 11 of our partner historic sites. Over the past year these funds have helped to provide essential maintenance and public programming in these sites' surrounding parks and open spaces.

Launched in May 2020 by a coalition of foundations, the NYC Green Relief & Recovery Fund supports stewardship organizations that care for NYC's parks, as well as systemic change and transformation in the open space sector. Learn more about the NYC Green Relief & Recovery Fund, which is administered by the City Parks Foundation, by clicking here.

How the sites used the funds:

• Funds helped Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum retain their assistant gardener position through fall 2020, allowing him to prepare the area around the Lenape wigwam and the Treaty Oak for the resoundingly successful "Trick or Treat Trek."

• Conference House used their grant to restore the raised beds in their garden and replace the deteriorated cedar garden fence. Additionally, funds supported new plantings of native flowers, perennials, herbs, and a vegetable garden.

• Gracie Mansion used their funds to build a greenhouse conceived by conceptual artist, filmmaker, and community activist Linda Goode Bryant. Bryant is also the founder and president of Project EATS, which plans to provide educational content, seasonal garden tours, student camps, and onsite training on healthy cooking, eating, and lifestyles.

• This grant helped Historic Richmond Town continue their public programs, from last winter's "Cabin Fever Reliever" workshops to this spring's "Chores ‘N Tours." At these programs, historic interpreters offered demonstrations of open hearth laundry, butter churning, soap making, and more, while maintaining safety protocols and procedures.

• At King Manor Museum, this re-grant supported the site's free public seed library, which provides high quality, culturally significant open-pollinated varieties for growers across NYC. King Manor also hosted several volunteer gardening days that helped the site with harvesting, soil conditioning, landscape improvements, winterization, and planting.

• Kingsland Homestead used funds to support two major projects: the "Weeping Beech Park Beautification Project" and the "In Your Neighborhood Educational Program Series." The beautification project helped to turn the park into a more welcoming space, while the programming series is teaching local community members the many histories that make Queens.

• At the Lewis Latimer House Museum, funds were used to organize and purchase supplies for a community-based volunteer day focusing on trash pickup and park maintenance. In addition to traditional cleaning supplies, gloves, masks, and hand sanitizer were required to ensure volunteer and staff safety.

• This summer, the Merchant's House Museum is bringing back the joy of "Summer Evenings in the Garden." Grant funds helped to prepare for these programs, including replacing damaged plants, introducing ivy plantings, and maintaining features along the garden’s rear wall. Funds also helped to maintain their gardener position.

• Grant funding helped Old Stone House retain their Director of Gardens position during the pandemic, allowing further engagement with their garden volunteer program and the successful expansion of their community compost program.

• Seguine Mansion completed several gardening and maintenance projects with their funding allocation, including cleaning all on-site garden beds, adding new red mulch, removing weeds from the driveway, and planting Creeping Jenny and Moonshadow Euonymus.

• Van Cortlandt House Museum used their grant to acquire A/V equipment for virtual engagement purposes. This equipment allows the museum to create new content about the history of the site, offer at-home family activities, and create an online collections catalogue.