In June 2011, the Preservation Trust of Vermont established a Historic Places Revolving Fund with a $65,000 grant from the 1772 Foundation — a Connecticut-based foundation that helps preservation projects and organizations around the nation. The goal of the fund is to acquire options on properties that are threatened in one way or another and then to find new owners and new economic uses for them.
Whether it is a very early Vermont building that has survived for generations or a more recent, yet still historically significant structure, these buildings all tell Vermont’s story through their architecture and what we know of the lives of people that inhabited them. And there’s something about the Yankee ethic — you don’t throw something away that has value and use.
Historic buildings define the character and add to the sense of place in a community. Furthermore, the quality of these buildings tends to be substantially higher than new construction today. Attention to downtowns, which are the heart of communities, is important; at the center of these gathering places are historic buildings.
