President and executive director, William Poulton, announced that the Muncy Historical Society has received two grants from the Waldron Memorial Fund at the First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania.
The first award of $8,000 award helps the Society offsets its annual general operating expenses. This financial assistance offsets some of the costs to maintain and sustain the Society’s properties, to pay insurance and utility costs, and to insure the protection of each location and the “pieces of Muncy’s past” in the collections. Under the Society’s umbrella is the house museum and the Sprout-Waldron exhibition building, both located at 40 N. Main Street and the Heritage Park and Nature Trail at 601 Pepper Street. Fortunately, as an all-volunteer organization, the Society does not need to budget for staff salaries. Memberships, museum store sales, research fees, and private donations make up the difference to cover the annual operating costs.
The Society’s 40 N. Main Street property is a repository for historically priceless “pieces of Muncy’s past” and its structural integrity is critical. This structure represents an adaptive use property, beginning as a residence, then a doctor’s home/office, back to a residence, and in 1936, Muncy’s museum. As an adaptive use property, it sets an example for many of Muncy’s finest homes and businesses that no longer serve the community as originally intended.
The second award of $10,000 represents a grant from the Waldron Memorial Fund to be used to offset costs for its 40 N. Main Street location – specifically, to rebuild the museum’s rear foundation wall, floor joists, and kitchen floorboards, and to construct a rear entrance platform with an egress ramp to the parking lot. Other efforts, paid with fundraising proceeds, include the installation of basement support beams, rebuilding the fireplace hearth, restudding the exterior walls to acceptable standards prior to resurfacing with hardboard to strengthen the 2 1/2 story frame structure.
The building represents a typical early Muncy home in that it was built over many years – with its earliest section facing its Main Street sidewalk. Dating from 1812 and one of the earliest homes still standing in the northern end of Muncy, it is an example of the viability that even early 19th century structures can survive countless flooding incidents. While many of Muncy’s northern properties have been razed, and with others identified for a similar fate, it is important that the integrity of this historic property be restored so that it is positioned to sustain, and withstand, any future water assaults.
The First Community Foundation Partnership of Pennsylvania works to improve the quality of life in north-central Pennsylvania through community leadership, the promotion of philanthropy, the strengthening of nonprofit impact, and the perpetual stewardship of charitable assets. FCFP strives to create powerful communities through passionate giving. For more information visit www.FCFPartnership.org.
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