[MassHistPres] Quonset Hut / Funding

[Tucker, Jonathan]

I agree with Sarah-if you had a non-profit willing to accept donation, I
think a lot of people would contribute.  That visible kind of community
support might help convince the owner to allow more time, as well.

 

When I was 6-8 (1958-60), my family and I lived in half of a Quonset Hut
in Iowa City, Iowa, while my father was getting his Ph.D. from the
University of Iowa.   The former 'veterans' village' where we lived was
called-would anyone make this up?-Finkbine Park.  Think round
black-and-white TV tubes, after-school cartoons, and Rawhide.  My father
helped to de-segregate the downtown barber shops while we were there.
It was an interesting time.

 

Good luck,

 

Jonathan Tucker

Planning Director

Amherst Planning Department

4 Boltwood Avenue, Town Hall

Amherst, MA  01002

(413) 259-3040

tuckerj at amherstma.gov    

 

 

 

From: masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu
[mailto:masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu] On Behalf Of Burks, Sarah
Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 9:57 AM
To: cvwtc at aol.com; masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
Subject: Re: [MassHistPres] Quonset Hut / Funding

 

Matt,

 

Do you have a non-profit funding agent through whom you can accept tax
deductible contributions for preserving/moving the hut? The publicity
that you do should make it easy for people to see where to donate.

 

Sarah

 

From: masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu
[mailto:masshistpres-bounces at cs.umb.edu] On Behalf Of cvwtc at aol.com
Sent: Sunday, January 24, 2010 3:00 PM
To: masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
Subject: [MassHistPres] Quonset Hut / Funding

 

As you may have read on my previous entry, we are trying to preserve a
very rare civilian Quonset hut with an almost untouched interior from
its days in a post-war veteran village.  The non-profit Seabees Museum
in Davisville, RI said they would add the building to their collection.
A house moving company we contacted said they would do the job.  The
real issue is funding.

 

We are Beverly historians working on behalf of a Rhode Island museum to
send a Beverly Quonset hut that's in Hamilton to Davisville.  This has
really limited just what we can do to save the building.  Preservation
grant programs in Massachusetts are off limits to us since the hut would
be sent to Rhode Island.  Rhode Island preservation grants are also off
limits since the hut is in Massachusetts.  We've been given so little
time to save this structure and many grant programs out there take
months to even decide if a cause like this is worth funding.  

 

What do we do?  I really appreciate all the well-wishers and Quonset hut
fans out there but the bottom line is:  Funding saves the building.
Advocacy helps to save it but anything else seems to lead to a dead end.
This preservation dilemma was posted to Preserve RI's e-newsletter a few
weeks ago and we haven't received one hit or phone call.

Also, someone suggested the developer should be convinced to donate the
hut as a tax-deductible gift and then he could use the money to fund the
move (which would also be tax-deductible).  However, no one, including
the Seabee Museum, can figure out just how much this structure would be
worth or how much of a tax deduction he would get.  Any ideas?

- Matt Pujo

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