# 2008 Save America's Treasures Competitive Grant

# Recommendations

![](media/image1.png){width="1.0in" height="0.9479166666666666in"}

**Alaska**

**Holy Assumption Orthodox Church, Kenai**

The Holy Assumption Orthodox Church and Saint Nicholas Chapel have been
the principal and most enduring representatives of Russian culture in
south central Alaska from 1841 to the present. The church was
constructed of hand-hewn white spruce logs in 1896, and bell tower and
wood siding added before 1910. Grant funding will address these
structural problems, as well as provide seismic retrofit and
accessibility. (\$125,492)

**California**

**San Francisco Examiner Photograph Archive, San Francisco**

The San Francisco Examiner Photograph Archive, ca.1920-1990, is the
photographic morgue of the Examiner newspaper, the flagship of the
Hearst publishing empire. The archive is estimated to consist of 3.6
million negatives and 1 million photoprints, and constitutes one of the
largest holdings of photojournalism in the American West and visual
record of life in Northern California. The vast majority of the images
taken were never published, thus the negative collection is an untapped
reservoir of visual documentation. The grant funds will move the
negatives to a cold vault, sleeve the most historically important film
negatives, and reformat the most important and threatened negatives.
(\$158,278)

**District of Columbia**

**Howard Theatre**

The theatre, designed by architect J. Edward Storck, was opened in 1910,
and has hosted every major icon of the African American music
experience. It remains a cultural landmark for the African American
community, housing the soul of what was known as \"Black Broadway.\" One
of the original birthplaces to the legends of jazz, this project will
restore the theater's illustrious history, making it once again an
important music venue for the world. Grant funding for the extremely
deteriorated theater will provide a historic structure report, replace
the failed roof, and stabilize the structure. (\$350,000)

**St. John's Church**

Founded in 1815, St. John\'s Episcopal Church's proximity to the White
House in Lafayette Square has earned it the appellation "the Church of
the Presidents," as every President since James Madison has attended
regular or occasional services at St. John\'s. This early example of
19^th^-century federal architecture is planning to use its SAT grant to
address various structural issues in order to maintain the architectural
integrity of this National Historic Landmark. (\$200,000)

**Florida**

**Annie Pfeiffer Chapel, Lakeland**

Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida, home to the largest
single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture in the world,
will restore Wright's Annie Merner Pfeiffer Chapel, a tour-de-force of
architectural innovation and considered an exemplar of Wright's work.
The grant funds will repair the roof, decorative steel and replace the
deteriorated and destroyed textile blocks within the walls. (\$350,000)

**Georgia**

**Green-Meldrim House, Savannah**

Architect John Norris designed the 12,500 square feet two-story masonry
and cast-iron Gothic Revival mansion in Savannah for Charles Green in
1850. Perhaps most significant in the history of the home is that it
served as General Sherman's headquarters in 1864 after he had completed
his march to the sea. The saving of this house by the community of
Savannah in 1943 was also at the forefront of the historic preservation
movement in this country. Over time damage to the roofing system led to
a significant threat to the building. Grant funding will repair the roof
and parapet systems of the Green-Meldrim House, a National Historic
Landmark.(\$400,000)

**Hawaii**

**Project Ola 'Ai'opio, Kailua-Kona**

The Aiopio Fishtrap was built by Hawaiians to capture fish and is
located located in the Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park. This
nationally significant site is severely threatened by ocean waves and
erosion if no immediate action is taken. Grant funding will allow the
National Park Service, in a 12-month project, to methodically stabilize
the kuapa or fishpond walls of this unique Hawaiian structure.
(\$350,000)

**Illinois**

**Rosenthal Archives Collections, Chicago**

The Samuel R. & Marie Louis Rosenthal Archives includes the Fine Arts
Network Live Concert Series, the George Stone Collection\'s
Conversations Series, and the Oral History Project. These three
collections contain one-of-a-kind live interviews and concerts that
document the history of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and its role in
American music and culture. All three of the endangered collections are
currently stored on deteriorating reels and cassette tapes. Grant
funding will transfer these historical audio recordings to digital
format before the information is completely destroyed and ensure
sustainable public access. (\$65,105)

**Unity Temple, Oak Park**

Frank Lloyd Wright\'s Unity Temple masterpiece is deteriorating at a
rapid rate as it nears its centennial in 2009. Of particular urgency is
the need to determine the most effective and appropriate methods and
techniques to restore and conserve Unity Temple's original concrete
structure. The SAT funds will focus on the chimney and exterior wall on
the south façade, which will help the Unity Temple Restoration
Foundation create a technical roadmap for a comprehensive, lasting
restoration of this National Historic Landmark. (\$200,000)

**Kentucky**

**Pine Mountain Settlement School Repair, Bledsoe**

From 1913 to 1949, Pine Mountain operated a boarding school for mountain
children. The school may be the best example of a rural settlement
institution of the early 20th century, as well as having educational
programs that were, and continue to be, innovative. The campus plan and
many of its buildings were also designed by one of the first women
architects in the country, which contributes to the school\'s National
Historic Landmark status. With its grant award, the Pine Mountain
Settlement School will address immediate threats from water and
deterioration to five historic buildings. (\$138,575)

**Massachusetts**

**Public Radio Broadcast of the March on Washington, Boston**

On August 28, 1963, over 200,000 people converged on the National Mall,
the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, for the March on
Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Public radio produced 15 hours of live
coverage from the streets, from the stages, and from the midst of the
crowds. Forty years later, WGBH Radio discovered that it had the only
existing recordings of the broadcast. The collection contains hours of
interviews and commentary captured nowhere else, and provides an
important alternative to the commercial broadcast coverage of the March.
The SAT award will support documentation, restoration, and archival
preservation of these threatened recordings, which will then be
accessible to scholars and the public. (\$72,120)

**Maryland**

**B&O's Railroad Locomotives, Baltimore**

The B&O Railroad Museum showcases the evolution of American steam
locomotives from their beginning in 1827 to the end of the steam era in
the 1950s. Grant funding will focus on saving four historically
significant19th century B&O locomotives that were severely damaged by
the collapse of the museum\'s roundhouse in 2003. In-house restoration
efforts will address the immediate threat to the locomotives, as well as
serve as a model that will benefit future preservation and conservation
efforts. (\$500,000)

**Steam Tug *Baltimore*, Baltimore**

The Steam Tug *Baltimore* is the last of its kind, a hand-fired,
coal-burning, steam-powered tugboat, and a National Historic Landmark.
The Baltimore Museum of Industry (BMI) seeks to repair and / or replace
major portions of the deck and hull of the Steam Tug *Baltimore*. This
will remedy incorrect preservation methods that exacerbated
deterioration and limited effective restoration. The ultimate goal of
this project is to restore the *Baltimore* to her pre-World War I deck
condition by stripping the concrete from the deck, replacing the
longitudinal steel supports, applying a waterproof epoxy, and then
laying new Georgia pine wood decking. This project will solve many of
the vessel's structural problems, but most importantly it will address
the constant leakage and condensation problems that threaten the vessel.
(\$250,000)

**Maine**

**Maine Maritime Museum, Bath**

Maine Maritime Museum\'s nationally and internationally significant
collections of art, ships models, tools, artifacts, manuscripts and
photographs are housed in the Maritime History Building, which has
severe water penetration problems that threaten the collections. Using
its SAT funds, the first phase of the project will repair the building's
structural problems to ensure the integrity of the collections.
(\$460,000)

**Michigan**

**U.S. Weather Bureau Building, Sault Sainte Marie**

On July 1, 1891, Congress established the U.S. Weather Bureau by
transferring meteorological functions from the Army Signal Corps to the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In 1899, USDA decided that one of
the most strategic locations for a weather reporting station and
forecasting center would be directly at the Soo Lock. Radio and
electronic reporting eventually made the building's manually-based
function obsolete and the Weather Bureau abandoned the building in 1939.
Fewer than five of these historic buildings still stand in the U.S.
today. This project will fund exterior restoration of the 1899 U.S.
Weather Bureau Building, a contributing element of the St Marys Falls
Canal National Historic Landmark district. (\$125,640)

**Minnesota**

**Battle Flag Restoration, St. Paul**

The Minnesota Historical Society preserves and makes available a wide
range of artifacts and materials chronicling Minnesota history,
including 48 battle flags associated with the Civil, Spanish-American,
and U.S. Dakota Wars. These flags are in serious states of
deterioration, improperly stored, and poorly displayed. The grant funds
will conserve 23 of the Civil War flags, provide appropriate
environmental storage for all 48 flags at the Minnesota History Center,
and retrofit original exhibit cases for a rotating display of the flags
in the Cass Gilbert designed Minnesota State Capitol. The remaining 25
flags will be treated as part of an on-going conservation effort, as
funds allow. (\$181,119)

**Missouri**

**New Letters on the Air, Kansas City**

Since 1977, "New Letters on the Air" has brought public radio audiences
throughout the United States a weekly airing of some of the most
important literary voices of our time, such as Robert Creeley, Muriel
Rukeyser, and Joseph Brodsky. In over 30 years, giants of poetry,
fiction, essays and drama have appeared on the program, reading and
talking about their creative process. The SAT award will be used to
improve storage, stabilize the tapes and make the collection accessible.
(\$68,505)

**Mississippi**

**Dockery Farms, Cleveland**

The migration of whites and blacks to the Mississippi Delta in the late
19th and early 20th centuries to cultivate cotton created a culture that
in turn gave birth to the music known as the Blues. Dockery Farms, an
integral part of the Delta tradition, was home to a number of Blues
pioneers, including Henry Sloan, Willie Brown, Tommy Johnson, Roebuck
\"Pop\" Staples and, most importantly, Charley Patton who is widely
acknowledged as the father of the Blues. The project will preserve the
heart of the community where these pioneering musicians worked, lived,
and played together, making it safe and accessible to the public. Grant
funds will address preservation of the historic fabric and mitigation of
threats to six historic structures. (\$177,244)

**Montana**

**Bannack Building Stabilization, Bannack**

Bannack is a National Historic Landmark that encompasses a completely
intact, 19^th^ century mining town nestled in the Rocky Mountains of
southwestern Montana. More than 50 buildings comprise the town, which is
the site of Montana\'s first gold discovery and its first territorial
capital. Several buildings show signs of serious deterioration and
stabilization efforts are needed to preserve their structural integrity.
The grant funds will stabilize two log cabins and a church parsonage,
and repair the structural foundation of the Meade Hotel, a site used for
many public events and education. (\$194,593)

**New York**

**Thomas Moran Studio House and Garden, East Hampton**

Thomas Moran was one of the most ambitious painters of his time, and was
best known for his panoramic views of the American West. Many of his
major works were painted here in the house and studio built in 1884 and
now a National Historic Landmark. The grounds, main house and four
outbuildings are all in dilapidated condition, and in dire need of
repair and rejuvenation. The grant funds will help restore and stabilize
the main house and studio structure. (\$525,000)

**Mordecai Sheftall Papers: Conservation, Preservation, and
Digitization, New York**

This project will preserve and make available a major Revolutionary War
era collection, the papers of Mordecai Sheftall, who was Commissary
General for Georgia's Continental troops in 1777 and 1778. The Mordecai
Sheftall Papers comprise some 3,300 documents that are a rich chronicle
of his service and an invaluable record on the makeup of the Continental
militia, the presence of women among the military units, the trafficking
in and treatment of slaves, the treatment of the sick and injured, and
the diet and clothing of both soldiers and civilians. The collection is
currently in such poor physical condition that it cannot be used for
research, exhibition or any other purposes. The SAT grant will support
the preservation and digitization of these papers and ensure their
future use. (\$48,946)

**New York Academy of Medicine Library Stabilization Project, New York**

The New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) includes more than 750,000
volumes, 400,000 pamphlets, 275,000 portraits and illustrations, and a
collection of about 35,000 rare books dating from ca. 1650 B.C. to 1820
A.D. To stabilize the collection, grant funds will be used to improve
the environmental conditions. (\$500,000)

**McKim, Mead & White Collection, New York**

The McKim, Mead & White Collection is a nationally significant resource
representing the history of both American architecture and some of the
nation's most notable buildings. As the leading American architectural
firm of the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, McKim, Mead & White's
commissions included the original Madison Square Garden, the Morgan
Library, the original Pennsylvania Station in New York, the Boston
Public Library, the Rhode Island State Capitol, the Vanderbilt town
house, and the restoration of the University of Virginia\'s Rotunda. The
grant funds will be used to re-house and stabilize the thousands of
drawings, blueprints and documents. (\$180,693)

**Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge, Poughkeepsie**

When completed in 1888, the 6,767-foot long Poughkeepsie-Highland
Railroad Bridge stood alone as the longest bridge in the world. It
represented an engineering feat unrivalled in its day, its steel trusses
carrying more weight over longer spans than any previous structure. The
overall project, which is part of a larger \$30 million endeavor, seeks
to transform the former railroad bridge into an elevated
pedestrian/cycling park, while preserving the structural legacy of the
historic landmark. Grant funding will address the repair of steel
elements on the 19th Century structure that have received virtually no
maintenance or repairs since a fire in 1974 ended the span\'s use as a
railroad bridge. (\$440,000)

**Old Fort Niagara-- Youngstown**

The French, the British, the United States, and the powerful Iroquois
Confederacy devoted lives and treasures for control of the Old Fort
Niagara site during the French & Indian War, the Revolutionary War, and
the War of 1812. Old Fort Niagara has a number of serious threats to the
structures throughout its historic complex, which includes six original
18th Century military structures. Grant funding will address structural
repairs to this National Historic Landmark. (\$240,000)

**North Carolina**

**Cupola House, Edenton**

The Cupola House is a 250-year old National Historic Landmark and its
Jacobean design is the finest example of the style south of New England.
The colonial-era building stands as a reminder of cultural and economic
growth during the latter years of British rule and our nation\'s early
history. Grant funds will repair the roof, brick chimneys, fireboxes,
and foundation. (\$115,000)

**Oklahoma**

**Tulsa Foundation for Architecture Archives, Tulsa**

The Tulsa Foundation for Architecture (TFA) holds architectural
drawings, renderings, specifications, tracings, photographs/slides,
periodicals, and books that document the history of architecture,
particularly the Art Deco period that is evident in many of the city's
buildings designed by leading architects of the period. Grant funds will
be used to preserve and conserve these "at risk" collections and provide
greater public access via technology to scholars, architects,
historians, and researchers. (\$150,000)

**Pennsylvania**

**Valley Forge National Historical Park: Documents, King of Prussia**

The Valley Forge National Historical Park's holdings include 1,000
documents and manuscripts from the American Revolution. These documents
detail various aspects of the American Revolution, and for the most part
relate directly to the Valley Forge Encampment of 1777-1778. Of special
note are two orderly books that provide a closer look at the day-to-day
lives of officers and soldiers during our fight for independence. With
this SAT grant, these documents will be stabilized and digitized,
ensuring their preservation and making them more accessible to
researchers.(\$61,299)

**Henry Melchior Muhlenberg Journal Collection, Philadelphia, PA**

Known as the father of American Lutheranism, Henry Melchior Muhlenberg's
journals record descriptions of his travels and work that offer an
unparalleled glimpse into 18^th^- century colonial America. Many of the
journals are in poor condition and some can no longer be handled. The
grant funds will be used to repair and rebind the texts, and digitize
them to allow for increased access to their invaluable information.
(\$93,191)

**Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA**

Eastern State Penitentiary, a National Historic Landmark, brought about
a revolution in the design and management of prisons when it was opened
in 1829. The roofs of two of its original cellblocks have severely
deteriorated, threatening their survival as well as the safety of
visitors. The grants will restore roofs, which will allow the cellblocks
to be interpreted and added to the penitentiary tour. (\$523,563)

**USS Becuna-- Philadelphia**

Submarine USS Becuna, commissioned in 1944, is the only remaining World
War II fleet submarine of its class in existence with 90 percent of her
historic fabric still intact. The stability of this National Historic
Landmark is threatened by the corrosion of her hull. Funds will be used
to repair her ballast tanks, moorings, and fendering to prevent a
breach. (\$125,000)

**Rhode Island**

**Slater Mill, Pawtucket**

Slater Mill, a National Historic Landmark, was the first water-powered
cotton-spinning mill in the country, and the birthplace of the American
Industrial Revolution. Slater Mill and the surrounding site face severe
and imminent threats from flood, fire, and deterioration. Grants funds
will be used to mitigate these threats by repairing and restoring the
mill's headrace and waterworks. (\$300,000)

**Channing Memorial Church-- Newport**

The Channing Memorial Church is dedicated to one of America's most
influential philosophers William Ellery Channing, whose writings
influenced a generation of thinkers, poets, abolitionists, and civic
leaders such as Emerson, Thoreau and William Lloyd Garrison. The
130-foot American Gothic Revival style stone steeple constructed in 1880
is home to a rare nine-bell chime. Years of exposure to the elements and
the loss of mortar has caused the steeple to be in danger of collapse.
Grant funds will be used to repair and strengthen the steeple.
(\$440,000)

**South Carolina**

**Woodrow Wilson Family Home, Columbia**

The Woodrow Wilson Family Home in Columbia is a Reconstruction-era
Italianate villa-inspired property that interprets a highly pivotal time
in President Wilson's childhood. It suffers from extensive structural
instability due to decades of stopgap remedies and deferred maintenance.
Funds will assist with the second of three phases in its restoration,
stabilizing the building and restoring its exterior elements.
(\$335,000)

**South Dakota**

**Clowser Collection, Deadwood**

The Clowser Collection comprises art and artifacts that are rare and
significant to the history and culture of American Indians, particularly
Northern Plains tribes. The conditions in which the collection is housed
at the Days of '76 Museum are poor and the items are not protected from
water, temperature fluctuations, or animals and insects. With this Save
America's Treasures grant, at-risk artifacts will be conserved in
accordance with a previously conducted assessment and the collection
will be stabilized. (\$272,700)

**Texas**

**Bishop's Palace, or Walter Gresham House, Galveston**

Architectural historians recognize the Gresham House as one of the
finest Victorian residences in the United States and the most important
work of Texas architect Nicholas Clayton. The Gresham House now faces
serious threats including water infiltration through a deteriorated
roofing system and damage resulting from Hurricane Ike in September
2008. The clay roof tiles and copper flashing are beyond their effective
life spans. Grant funds will go toward the rehabilitation of the
significant, character defining roof. (\$300,000)

**Utah**

**Anthropology Collections, Salt Lake City**

The Utah Museum of Natural History cares for anthropological collections
that are of national significance. The origins of these collections date
to the late 19th century, and today the museum is the steward of nearly
one million archaeological and 3,000 ethnographic objects. Presently,
the collections are dispersed among six rooms in two buildings and one
off-site warehouse, all of which lack seismic upgrades and have
antiquated HVAC systems. Grant funds will be used to clean, stabilize,
and prepare the anthropology collections for the move to a new facility
and for purchase of museum-quality metal cabinets to house the
significant holdings in the anthropology collections at the Utah Museum
of Natural History. (\$500,000)

**Enola Gay Hangar, Wendover**

The Historic Wendover Airfield is working to save the building used
during World War II as the focal point for development of the project
code-named "Silverplate," which prepared the United States for
deployment of the atomic weapons that ended the war with Japan. This
B-29 hangar in Wendover, Utah, called the \'Enola Gay\' hangar, is the
only location in the U.S. that maintained and developed/modified the
B-29 aircraft used for training and dropping test bombs. The grant funds
will be used to re-roof the metal hangar portion of the building,
re-roof the north and south operations offices and shops, and provide
siding and windows for the building. (\$440,000)

**Virginia**

**Historic Jamestowne Archaeological Collection, Jamestown, VA**

Since 1994, thousands of ceramic, glass, metal and other artifacts have
been excavated in the James Fort and its surrounding area. The
conservation of these fragments will provide a catalyst to historians,
scientists, other researchers and the public to engage in a new
examination of America\'s beginnings. Grant funds will be used to
purchase a digital X-ray unit that will enable the curatorial staff to
identify objects concreted in iron oxide, and to make informed decisions
about prioritizing iron artifacts for treatment. (\$137,500)

**Wyoming**

**Paul Dyck Plains Indian Buffalo Culture Collection, Cody**

The Paul Dyck Plains Indian Buffalo Culture Collection is widely
regarded as the most comprehensive privately held collection of
pre-reservation materials in existence today. The collection consists of
more than 2,000 irreplaceable objects including clothing, eagle feather
bonnets, buffalo hide tipis, bear claw necklaces, shields, peace medals,
and firearms. Many of the objects are associated with individuals of
national significance in Native American cultural history, including
leaders such as Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Plenty
Coups. Suffering from serious overcrowding, inadequate storage methods
and extremes in temperature, the grant funds will be used to re-house
the materials and make them accessible to on-site researchers, tribal
members, and scholars through exhibition at Buffalo Bill Historical
Center. (\$350,000)