State museum commission grants will help preserve history at West Overton

It’s possible that part of a Keystone Historic Preservation Grant from the state may go toward repairing an actual keystone, depending on what needs to be fixed at the West Overton Village & Museum in East Huntingdon.

Most of the $100,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission will go toward masonry work, according to West Overton’s co-executive director Aaron Hollis.

“We have 20 buildings on our campus, and they’re all 19th-century historic buildings,” Hollis said. “This grant will provide structural and facade repairs to five of our mission-fulfilling structures.”

All the museum’s buildings are brick-built, “and over time because of precipitation and weather, the mortar wears away and weakens the walls,” Hollis said.

The museum’s large barn — one of the largest brick-built barns in Pennsylvania, Hollis said — has a large crack at one corner, spotted when officials were developing a long-term structural preservation plan.

“The main scope is a lot of masonry,” Hollis said. “But there other things like the Overholt homestead. It was built in 1838, opened as a museum in 1928, and the windows and blinds, especially on the sides that see the most weather, have deteriorated over time.”

The official kickoff for the two-year grant period is September, and Hollis said the buildings at West Overton will remain open during much of the work.

“This fall we’re going to check with contractors who’ve done estimates for us and see how much we can get before winter,” he said. “But the bulk of the work will be done between the summer of ’24 and ’25.”

Keystone Historic Preservation Grants for 48 projects, awarded through a competitive selection process, range from $5,000 to $100,000 and require a 50% match.

“The selected projects represent the breadth of historic resources that Pennsylvanians value – from cornerstone buildings in their downtowns to a rural grist mill and significant lighthouse,” said PHMC Executive Director Andrea Lowery. “This investment ensures that Pennsylvania’s cultural memory will be preserved for future generations.”

In Fayette County, a $66,500 grant will go to the city of Connellsville for masonry work on the Connellsville Area Community Center, which was once Connellsville High School.

“The parapet needs repointed,” said Connellsville Manager Vernon Ohler. “The building itself is in pretty good shape, and our community ministry runs a lot of arts and services out of there. The city owns it and they run it, so we thought we’d go for the grant and help them out.”

Other grants coming to Western Pennsylvania will to the Historical Society of Upper St. Clair, the Penn Hills Community Development Corp., Preservation Pittsburgh, the Rodef Shalom Congregation in the city’s Shadyside neighborhood and Sewickley Borough.