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Partly cloudy skies. Low 56F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
LaGrange County Historical Society President Bryan McCoy is happy the stained glass window that was removed from his organization’s building to be repaired will be reinstalled thanks to a state grant.
LaGrange County Historical Society President Bryan McCoy is happy the stained glass window that was removed from his organization’s building to be repaired will be reinstalled thanks to a state grant.
LAGRANGE — The LaGrange County Historical Society is one big step closer to its goal of raising all the money it needs to return a repaired stained glass window to the south wall of its LaGrange museum, thanks to an Indiana Historical Society Heritage Support Grant.
The state organization granted the LCHS $30,000 to be used to help restore and re-install a stained-glass window that was removed from the museum in May of last year. After sitting and soaking up 110 years of Indiana sun and weather, the large window needed extensive repairs.
Bryan McCoy, the president of the LCHS, said he first learned his organization had been awarded the grant in July but was asked to keep the news a secret until the IHS send out a press release last week.
“That was hard to keep that secret,” McCoy said Monday.
In total, the HIS awarded more than $450,000 to local historical societies and organizations in 13 counties in Indiana. The IHS says the Heritage Support Grants serve local, county, and regional historical societies, museums, and sites by funding projects that meet high-priority needs in collections stewardship, sustainability, and planning.
The Heritage Support program, launched in 2015, recognizes the critical role the organizations play in upholding the state’s heritage. The current iteration of the program will award $2.5 million through 2024.
McCoy said the state support is greatly appreciated. Small organizations like the LCHS often have a hard time attracting the attention of organizations that make grants to not for profits like historical societies.
The LCHS owns and operates a museum in the former church at the corner of High and Lafayette streets in LaGrange. The building houses the organization’s collection of artifacts, photographs, and other historical materials.
McCoy said learning the LCHS had been awarded the grant the best news possible.
“To be able to put that window back in, this is huge,” he said.
McCoy said the LCHS still has to raise an additional $10,000 before it can have the large stained glass window repaired and then reinstalled. He said he hoped to raise the money later this year, and have the window reinstalled by next summer.
Other area institutions to receive a Heritage Support Grant included the Goshen Historical Society of Elkhart County. That organization received a grant for $35,840 to replace deteriorating and damaged windows on its existing storefront and to retrofit the building’s front door with an automatic door opener. The work will allow the museum to better protect its exhibits and provide improved accessible entry to the museum.
Projects were funded in Daviess County, Brown County, Howard County, Porter County, Marion County, Jackson County, Hancock County, Marshall County, White County, and Wabash County.
The LCHS building was built in 1909 by LaGrange’s Lutheran community and served as the Lutheran Church for 23 years. When the church’s congregants decided to build a new church, they sold that building to the members of LaGrange’s Missionary Church, who called it home. After they moved, the Missionary Church sold the building to the local historical society.
McCoy said when the large stained glass window is returned, it will look brand new, and with its new storm system to protect it from Indiana’s harsh weather, the window should be good for another 100 years.
For more information about the grant or the local historical society, or to donate to help return the window to its place in the LCHS’s museum, contact McCoy by calling 350-8561.
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