These matching grants will help promote heritage tourism.
Crownsville, Md (KM) The Maryland Heritage Areas Authority has awarded $5-million in grants to non-profits, local governments and heritage tourism organizations around the state, including some in Frederick, Carroll and Washington Counties. “These grants support heritage tourism. They’re activities that draw visitors all throughout Maryland,” says Dave Buck, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Planning. “These grants go a long way to drawing people, visitors, seeing some exciting things across Maryland.
Buck says some local entities received grants. “The town of Emmitsburg got one for their Main Street Wayside exhibits. In Middletown for property acquisition. The Monocacy National Battlefield {Foundation, Inc.}. National Museum of Civil War Medicine. There’s really some really eclectic and differing types of things out there,” he says.
Buck says there are matching grants, which means that a third party must come up matching funds. He says it encourages private investments in heritage tourism. “We talk about little America in Maryland. We’ve got obviously from the mountains to the beach to everywhere in between. And these grants go a long way toward some of these smaller organizations that otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford some of the things that this enables them to do,” says Buck.
While a lot visitors come to Maryland for rest, relaxation and recreation, especially at the beaches during the summer, Buck says heritage tourism is a little different. These visitors take in the state’s historic sites, such as the Monocacy and Antietam Battlefields and Fort McHenry. They also visit areas with natural beauty such as Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay Coastal areas,and the mountains of western Maryland They also participate in cultural activities around the state. . “It’s been proven in studies that people that come for these types of things tend to stay longer and maybe spend a little bit more,” he says.
The Maryland Heritage Areas Authority is an independent unit of the Executive Branch of State Government administered by the Maryland Department of Planning. Since it was created in 1996, MHAA has awarded more than $36-million in grants and helped leverage more than $1.1-billion in non-state funding for heritage tourism projects and activities.
Buck says the grants donated this year are higher than in past years. “In years past, it’s been about $3-million. This year, Governor Hogan got that number up to $5-million. We had a record number of grantees looking for these matching grants,” he says.
The entities from Frederick, Carroll and Washington Counties which received grant money are:
Fiscal Year 2019 Maryland Heritage Area Authority Grants
Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area
Carroll, Frederick and Washington Counties
Total Awarded: $463,887
Carroll County Farm Museum
Carroll County Farm Museum?s Hoff Log Barn –
Enhanced Signage and Oxen Exhibit
$10,275.00
Catoctin Furnace Historical Society,
Inc.
Forged in Bone: Facial Reconstructions of
Catoctin Furnace’s Enslaved Workers
$28,000.00
Catoctin Furnace Historical Society,
Inc.
Collier Log House Rehabilitation Project
$15,600.00
Town of Emmitsburg
Emmitsburg Main Street Wayside Exhibits
$9,000.00
Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area
FY 2019 Block Grant
$25,000.00
Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area
FY 2019 Management Grant
$100,000.00
Historical Society of Carroll County
Carroll County Legacy: In Context- Exhibit at
Cockey’s
$50,000.00
Main Street Middletown MD, Inc.
Acquisition of 19-21 West Main Street
$37,860.00
Monocacy National Battlefield
Foundation, Inc.
Monocacy Landing-Launch Into History-
Monocacy NB River Launch and Landing
Facility
$12,500.00
National Museum of Civil War
Medicine, Inc.
Video Production – Collections Video and
Orientation Video
$23,343.00
National Park Service-Catoctin
Mountain Park
New Interpretive Exhibits for the Catoctin
Mountain Park Visitor Center
$29,500.00
Save Historic Antietam Foundation,
Inc
Poffenberger Tract Restoration
$17,500.00
Town of Thurmont
Wayfinding Signage
$12,300.00
Town of Sykesville, Maryland
Gate House Museum
$18,000.00
The Union Mills Homestead
Foundation, Inc.
Historic Resource Study for Union Mills
$24,159.00
Washington County Museum of Fine
Arts
American Art from the Colonial Era to the
Gilded Age and Smith-Mason-Thieblot
By Kevin McManus