Essex Heritage Partnership Grant Program as Popular as Ever and
Saugus Iron Works Re-opens
Spring certainly takes its time to arrive here in New England. It appears that in 2008, we have had our usual share of damp and cool weather. Hopefully the last couple of months of spring will be brighter and as the May flowers bloom, we will forget the dampness and chill of early April. Some of those night Red Sox games in April when the east wind brought cool temperatures off the ocean seemed better suited for football than baseball. When summer does arrive, we will all be so grateful for that east wind that arrives on the warm sultry days and we will forget all about early April and the cool temperatures.
Essex Heritage Partnership Grant Program 2008 Applications
Spring is the time when Essex Heritage re-focuses on our Partnership Grant program, and what those awards mean to so many in the region. Before I provide an update on the most recent activity in that program, let me take a moment to offer a little background on the ENHC Partnership Grant Program. One of the first initiatives that the Essex Heritage undertook when it was created and funded in 1998 was to establish a program that would allow us to share the funding we received. Since the program was first begun, 266 grants totaling $1.5 million dollars have been provided to this region. Those grants have been funded with a portion of the federal and state support we have received each year, and the grants have margined an additional $7.5 million in investments across the region. Grants have been provided to hundreds of not-for-profit organizations, municipalities and school districts to complete projects that might never have been accomplished without this valuable regional resource. Grants have been provided in each of the thirty-four communities in the region served by Essex Heritage and the diversity of the grants are unique, as they offer support to preservation, interpretation, educational, trail development, archives and historical records projects.
The 2008 Essex Heritage Partnership Grant program applications are similar to the overall history of the program. In 2008 Essex Heritage received 43 applications from 30 not-for-profit organizations, and 13 municipalities or school districts. The applications came from 19 communities and two of the applications were from regional organizations. The applications are now “making their way” through the ENHC screening process and final determinations will be made later this month. This year the award presentations will be made at the Essex Heritage Semi-Annual Meeting scheduled for June 10, 2008 at the Lynn Museum.
National Park Service’s Saugus Iron Works Site to Re-open
In the 1630’s John Winthrop, the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony determined that in order to become independent from England, iron must be produced in the colony. He learned that the raw material needed for iron production could be found in this region, and he established the first iron works in Braintree. A second site was soon founded as the Saugus Iron Works in 1646 on the Saugus River in what was then Linn (Lynn). That site became the foundation for this country’s iron and steel industry. The Saugus site operated for twenty-two years until 1668, and at the time of the American Revolution the work started and learned in Saugus was being replicated at over two hundred ironworks sites across the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The site in Saugus was closed and abandoned for almost 300 years, until the 1930’s when local historical interests purchased the site to save it from development. The site was preserved by several local organizations for the next several decades until 1969 when the site was acquired by the National Park Service (NPS), and the Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site was established. The site continues today to be operated by the Park Service.
In the fall of 2006, NPS closed the site for a year and one-half, while a major restoration and many wonderful enhancements to the site were undertaken. Now in 2008 the site is being reopened to the public. On the weekend of May 16-17, a series of opening events to be hosted by NPS and Essex Heritage have been scheduled to bring this national treasure back to life. I hope that many of you will make plans to visit the Saugus Iron Works on Grand Re-opening Weekend and will enjoy the festivities planned. If that weekend can not be “worked into your plans,” certainly plan to visit the site later this summer. You will be glad you did, as there is something for the entire family at the site, and you will enjoy seeing history come alive. For more information visit their website at: http://www.nps.gov/sair/.
Thomas M. Leonard is President Emeritus of the Essex National Heritage Commission, Inc., the nonprofit management entity of the Essex National Heritage Area, and can be reached at tleonard@essexheritage.org.