Old State Capitol Foundation
Award Type: Preservation Funds
Illinois
The 1902 Dana-Thomas House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is one of four state-owned historic sites that will be studied to devise new and innovative models for site programming and management.
Credit: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency
A $20,000 grant from the Jeffris Heartland Fund will help the historic sites of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA) in Springfield, IL, find new approaches to funding, maintaining, operating, and staffing Illinois' 60 official historic sites. In 2008, funding for Illinois' state historic sites was slashed by the governor as a result of a statewide budget crisis, resulting in the closure of many sites and drastic cuts in staffing and hours. Seeking new ways to help support their struggling sites, the Old State Capitol Foundation, working in conjunction with IHPA, identified four diverse historic properties in a limited geographic area—the Vachel Lindsay Home, the Dana-Thomas House, the Lincoln-Herndon Law Office and Lincoln's New Salem village—to participate in a demonstration project that will identify creative and sustainable strategies for historic site operations, tourism, and management. The results of the study will help provide guidance for the management of many other historic sites operated by IHPA, and will be widely distributed through public presentations, case studies, and journal articles to provide advice and guidance for other historic sites in the Midwest region and across the country.
