The MHC is among the recipients of 2023 Maritime Heritage Grants awarded by the National Park Service (NPS) to State Historic Preservation Offices. These grants are made possible through a partnership between NPS and the U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration (MARAD). The program does not use federal tax dollars and instead is funded by recycling vessels from the MARAD's National Defense Reserve Fleet. MHC received $242,500 to administer the MHC Maritime Heritage Education Subgrant Program.
The MHC Maritime Heritage Education Subgrant Program will be a competitive grant program made available to local governments, nonprofit organizations, and tribal entities to advance maritime heritage through public education and to expand public access to maritime history via multiple educational platforms.
The proposed education projects should have a basic goal of teaching the maritime heritage of Massachusetts and facilitating learning and research in the field. Activities should focus on curation, instruction, and interpretation of the three broad categories of historic maritime resources; maritime heritage collections, traditional maritime skills, and historic maritime properties.
Eligible project examples include -- but are not limited to – hands-on programs with the use of traditional maritime skills and tools, virtual workshops, online tours, public access to maritime history through website development, development of software application with interactive stories and games, interpretive signage, walking tours, podcasts, oral histories, story maps, exhibitions, lecture series, shipwright workshops, a digitized catalog of maritime history and minor improvements to existing educational facilities and exhibit spaces.
The subgrants will have a 1:1 matching requirement. Each federal dollar must be matched by one non-federal dollar. Match may be in the form of cash or in-kind donations of time, goods, or services. Applicants can request from $10,000 to $50,000 for total project costs of $20,000 to $100,000. Applicants must obtain and provide a Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) issued by the System for Award Management (SAM) to identify entities that do business with the federal government.
Applications will be available in January 2024 and posted to this website. Award notifications are anticipated to be in April 2024. Projects must be completed by September 30, 2025.
Please view the NPS Maritime Heritage Program website to learn more about maritime grants and how the program works to foster awareness and appreciation of the many roles waterways and their adjacent lands have played in America's history.
The MHC has begun the process of updating the current Massachusetts State Historic Preservation Plan 2018-2022 as required as part of its duties as the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). This plan is not just for the MHC, however—it is for all preservationists in the Commonwealth. The MHC will be providing several opportunities for public input over the course of the plan’s development. More information on the development of the Massachusetts State Historic Preservation Plan 2023-2028.
The MHC has begun the process of updating the current Massachusetts State Historic Preservation Plan 2018-2022 as required as part of its duties as the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). This plan is not just for the MHC, however—it is for all preservationists in the Commonwealth. The MHC will be providing several opportunities for public input over the course of the plan’s development. More information on the development of the Massachusetts State Historic Preservation Plan 2023-2028.
Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund
The Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund (MPPF) is a state-funded 50% reimbursable matching grant program established in 1984 to support the preservation of properties, landscapes, and sites (cultural resources) listed in the State Register of Historic Places. Applicants must be a municipality or nonprofit organization.
Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey and Planning Grant Program
The Massachusetts Historical Commission Survey and Planning Grant Program is a federally funded, reimbursable, 50/50 matching grant program to support historic preservation planning activities in communities throughout the state. For Fiscal Year 2024, eligible applicants for Survey and Planning Grants are anticipated to include all local historical commissions, local historic district commissions, planning offices, and other eligible public and non-profit historic preservation organizations. The target planning figure for this FY 2024 matching grant round will be contingent on MHC’s FY 2024 federal budget allocation, which has not yet been determined. Under federal law, MHC is required to pass through grant awards representing 10% of its total annual federal funding allocation to Certified Local Governments.