The Concord Journal, October 7, 2005

The Thoreau Farm Trust (TFT) is pleased to announce recent grant awards from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Greater Lowell Community Foundation.

“The Thoreau Farm Trust is moving forward on many fronts in its efforts to restore and re-use Henry David Thoreau’s birthplace,” said Lucille Stott, president of the TFT Board of Directors. “These two grants are a great show of support from organizations whose missions reflect our own commitment to preserving an important landmark and turning it into a usable community asset.

The TFT applied for a grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving historic places, through its Cynthia Woods Mitchell Fund for Historic Interiors this past spring and was awarded funding toward pre-development work at the Thoreau birthplace at 341 Virginia Road in Concord.

Historic architect Larry Sorli and historic materials conservator Bill Finch have been retained by the TFT and have begun work on the project. This phase is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

“The purpose of pre-development is to study the existing historic features of the house and record our findings with written, photographic and measured drawing documentation,” said Sorli. “This will guide the plan for the rehabilitation/restoration construction work.”

In addition, the TFT received a Nonprofit Capacity Building grant from the Greater Lowell Community Foundation, which promotes and encourages the role of philanthropy in improving the quality of life in the communities it serves. The grant covered the purchase of fundraising software for the organization.

“The Foundation’s capacity building grant program is focused on strengthening nonprofit managerial and organizational effectiveness,” said David Kronberg, the Foundation’s Executive Director. “The TFT’s grant award for a powerful fundraising software program will really help this very promising organization achieve its mission.”

Nancy Grohol, the TFT’s Executive Director, said the Trust is extremely grateful for this grant support. “The Thoreau Farm Trust is working toward reaching its fundraising goal of raising $800,000 to assume ownership of the house from the Town of Concord. Support of this kind will help propel us toward successful completion of this goal.

The Thoreau Farm Trust is a nonprofit group dedicated to restoring and rehabilitating the Thoreau birth house, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Wheeler-Minot Farmhouse/Henry David Thoreau Birthplace, for use as an educational center and community meeting space. For more information, please visit www.thoreaufarm.org.