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AUGUSA — Kennebec Historical Society has been awarded a $100,000 capital campaign grant to support the organization’s quest for more storage space, research room, society activities and to build an endowment to generate more operating income.
The grant was awarded by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s Geoffrey E. Clark and Martha Fuller Clark Fund.
“I am grateful that the extended Fuller family is continuing to support the work of the Kennebec Historical Society,” said Kent London, KHS vice president and chair of the Carriage House expansion committee.
The society’s headquarters, the Henry Weld Fuller Jr. House, at 107 Winthrop St., is named for the man who first lived there and who financed its construction. Fuller (1810-1889), a lawyer who was born and raised in Augusta, is a relative of Martha Fuller Clark. Fuller and his wife, the former Mary Storer Goddard, moved to Massachusetts a few years after their Augusta home was built. The house passed through several owners before becoming headquarters of the American Baptist Churches of Maine. KHS bought it in 2007.
The society began planning the three-story expansion of the Fuller House, a project expected to cost about $2.8 million, in 2018. The plan includes establishing a $2 million endowment, which would be invested to generate income needed to operate the building. Earlier this year, the society’s board of directors broadened its expansion discussions to include the possibility of acquiring space in an existing building to help meet the increasing space needs for properly storing the society’s archives for the immediate future while continuing to explore an addition to the Fuller House.
“The Kennebec Historical Society is fortunate to have so many documents and items of importance to Kennebec County, many of which have been generously donated by families and organizations in the area,” Jamie Logan, society president, said. “We are grateful to the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and the extended Fuller family for this incredible grant, which will be so helpful in our continued efforts to expand our archival space and keep these historic materials available for generations to come.”
