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AUGUSTA — The Kennebec Historical Society has received a $25,000 grant from the Charles T. & Marion M. Thompson Foundation’s Unrestricted Fund to help support its expansion plan.
The society will use the grant to defer the costs of the planning and engineering of an addition to the historic Henry Weld Fuller Jr. House, the society’s headquarters at 107 Winthrop St.
The grant, from a fund administered by the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation, was recommended by the descendants of Henry Weld Fuller, who once owned the land, where the society’s building stands, and whose son commissioned the construction of the house there in the 1830s. The money is intended to be a match to a contribution from another descendant of Henry Weld Fuller and a longtime supporter of the Society.
“I’m very pleased and excited with the opportunity this matching grant will provide our organization,” said Patsy Crockett, president of the Kennebec Historical Society. She added, “We are bursting at the seams, truly in need of additional space for our archive material.”
In January 2018, the Kennebec Historical Society formed a Carriage House Expansion Committee to address the shortage of space in the climate-controlled archive because of the numerous donations of items to the society’s collection, and a reoccurring water problem in the Fuller house basement. The committee has explored many options for solving those problems, but ultimately it determined the society should pursue expanding the current building. An expansion to KHS headquarters will allow the society to continue fulfilling its goal of actively preserving the history of Kennebec County.
E.S. Coffin Engineering and Surveying has provided the society with a proposal for engineering services for the proposed addition. The grant money will pay for generating floor plans, mechanical plans and elevation drawings of the proposed addition. Questions about the project should be directed to Scott Wood, KHS administrative director, at 207-622-7718.
