[MassHistPres] Town Funding for Historical Societies

[Judy Markland]

Joyce,
I'd be very interested in the responses that you get.

How much space do you get for your $2000/year?  And does the town cover 
utilities, insurance, snow plowing and the like?   I'm wondering what a 
comparable rent would be from a private landlord.   Do you have any 
idea?  That might be helpful to know before you approach anyone in the town.

The town of Whately, population 1500, is letting the Historical Society use 
one room in a former two-room elementary school and also a small storage 
room in the basement of the library.  No rent is charged, but the Society 
does contribute to the upkeep of the school building when there is an 
extraordinary expense.  The town provides basic insurance, utilities, heat 
and maintenance of the grounds.

Judy Markland
Whately


At 03:28 PM 9/30/2014, Joyce Anderson wrote:
>Hello Everyone,
>First, I would like to say how much I appreciate this forum. It is always 
>helpful to share concerns and questions with others involved in the goal 
>of preservation.
>
>My question arises from the role that historical societies play and 
>whether or not the town should assist the them financially. Since the 
>1920's, the Princeton Historical Society, has been privately funded by 
>donations. Currently we are renting space in a town-owned building where 
>we are paying over $2,000 a year in rent to the town. This space is used 
>to display our town artifacts, including important historical documents. 
>We have a small endowment but need to use some of that to pay our rent, so 
>over time, the endowment has dwindled.
>
>My question is, would it be realistic to expect the town to help fund a 
>portion of our rent, and how can we go about changing a precedent that has 
>been set? Are there any historical societies, that you know of, that have 
>financial assistance from the town? Our goal would be to have the town pay 
>our rent (or a portion of it) to help sustain the Princeton Historical Society.
>
>Sincerely,
>Joyce Anderson
>Princeton Historical Commission, past chair, and Princeton Historical 
>Society, board member
>
>Joyce Anderson
><mailto:jabanderson at gmail.com>jabanderson at gmail.com
>
>
>
>******************************
>For administrative questions regarding this list, please contact 
>Christopher.Skelly at state.ma.us directly.  PLEASE DO NOT "REPLY" TO THE 
>WHOLE LIST.
>MassHistPres mailing list
>MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
>http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/mailman/listinfo/masshistpres
>********************************
>
>No virus found in this message.
>Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>Version: 2014.0.4765 / Virus Database: 4025/8301 - Release Date: 09/30/14

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.cs.umb.edu/mailman/private/masshistpres/attachments/20141001/389e41cd/attachment.htm>