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Governor Beshear to present grant to museum center
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By MARLA TONCRAY, News Editor
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The Kentucky Gateway Museum Center has been approved to receive a Transportation Enhancement grant in the amount of $85,000 for ongoing restoration of the Wormald building.
Gov. Steve Beshear will be in town Monday, to present the funds to the museum's board of directors, staff members and volunteer corps. The governor is expected to arrive at the museum around 1:30 p.m., in between stops in Brooksville and Flemingsburg. The public is invited to attend the presentation.
KGMC Director Dawn Browning said the grant, which is a 80/20 matching grant, will allow the museum to repair the building's original windows, complete tuckpointing on the brick structure and install storm windows on the interior of the building which provides better control of the amount of light and temperature changes than storm windows placed on the exterior of the building.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $110,000, Browning said. Work is expected to begin this fall.
"This will allow us to complete the second phase of our restoration enhancement project," Browning said, explaining Phase I of the project was the new addition to the museum, which was completed last year.
The Wormald Building was built in 1881 through a gift from James Wormald to house the Maysville and Mason County Library, Historical and Scientific Association, which was officially incorporated in 1878.
Browning noted it also special restoration work will commence this year, which marks the 130th anniversary of the association.
The building served as a public library until the early 1970s. After its restoration in 1975, it became home to a museum, art gallery and historical and genealogical research library.
Today, the building houses several permanent history exhibits about Maysville and Mason County, and gallery space which houses a permanent art collection and has temporary exhibition space.
With the addition of the new building at the KGMC campus, the research and genealogical research library moved to larger quarters and the Kathleen Savage Browning Miniatures Gallery opened.
Browning said KGMC qualified for the Transportation Enhancement grant because of its extensive collection of history about river transportation in the area, as well as the Underground Railroad network used by escaping slaves through Mason County into Ripley, Ohio.
"This is so exciting ... we haven't had a governor here (at the museum) since Gov. Carroll in the 1970s," Browning said of Beshear's visit.
Contact Marla Toncray at marla.toncray@lee.net or 606-564-9091, ext. 275. |
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