Blue Grass Trust gets largest gift in 70-year history of preservation | Opinion
The Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation is turning 70 years old this year, and it just got a most excellent birthday gift to celebrate.
The Mellon Foundation has announced a $600,000 grant to group to support the new Preservation Center at Hopemont, formerly known as the Hunt-Morgan House on the corner of Mill and Second streets.
The Preservation Center is to open in 2027 as a “one-stop-shop” for the Trust’s preservation services, including programming, consulting, a preservation library, grant assistance and lectures.
The grant also funds two new positions, a staff person to run the new center and a coordinator of African-American Preservation. This would be the first full-time preservationist in the state focused on Black heritage.
“With Mellon’s generous support, the Blue Grass Trust gets to establish a trailblazing, place-based resource center that offers practical preservation expertise while helping safeguard Kentucky’s diverse histories,” said Jonathan Coleman, Executive Director of the Blue Grass Trust.
“We get to live up to our solidarity statement by dramatically strengthening Kentuckians’ capacity to protect the historic places that matter to them and ensure our histories are preserved and celebrated.”
The Trust has done a lot to keep Lexington’s unique historic infrastructure intact. It’s a constant struggle with the needs of a modern city, but they keep reminding us that Lexington’s history is what keeps it from being like Everytown, USA. Thanks to the Mellon Foundation for helping those efforts.
Here are some other thoughts as this very steamy week comes to an end:
- We’re almost to Fancy Farm, Kentucky’s very own political picnic, and more than a few commentaries about the Democrats’ abandonment of it. I get it, it’s a long way to drive and a lot of sweating to live through, just to be totally outnumbered and heckled by the opposing party. But as Jake Cox pointed out in his piece published Thursday, Mitch McConnell kept showing up when Republicans were in the minority, and look where the GOP is today. If Democrats want to even be a shadow of their former selves, they’ve got to do the hard work when it’s hardest. Grumbling about whether Fancy Farm is still relevant is a transparent ploy and does not help your case.
- There have also been a lot of stories about the Fayette County Public Schools this week, including my own critique of the leadership of Superintendent Demetrus Liggins. Reading the comments, though, I disagree that we need new leaders. What ails FCPS could be fixed with better attitudes, better communication and more transparency. The most important work — in classrooms — appears to be going well, and we don’t need the disruption of a new leadership search.
- In addition, I would call on all the school board members to skip expensive team-building training in favor of grown-up straight talk with one another. Stop with pet peeves, personal grudges and hypersensitivity, get on with the jobs you were elected to do.
