BROWNSTOWN
Two more grants mean more upgrades at the Jackson County History Center in Brownstown.
Volunteer grant writer Margo Brewer recently announced the center was awarded a $37,500 Indiana Historical Society Heritage Support Grant to complete the third and final phase of a project inside the C.T. Robertson Livery Barn.
Heritage Support Grants are made possible by Lilly Endowment Inc. and support Indiana’s local, county and regional historical societies, museums and sites in their important work.
The history center also received a $3,438 Indiana Historical Society Mini Grant for work on the roof and attic on the trading post.
The livery barn project most likely will start at the beginning of 2022, but the trading post work started this week.
The latter project will keep birds, primarily pigeons, out of the trading post. Royalty Roofing was hired to install soffit and cover up holes to keep birds out of the building.
Brewer said she hopes the project is completed this week because she wants to apply for another Mini Grant to make repairs on the ticket booth from the former Stardust Theatre in Seymour that sits behind the livery barn. The deadline to apply for that grant is the end of this month.
“I have to have the other one closed out and paid before I can apply,” Brewer said.
Alan Cain and Mark Frische will do the work inside the livery barn, and Dana Johnson is the project manager.
That will involve installing insulation and repairing the walls and ceiling.
“Right now, you can see daylight through some of the walls,” Brewer said.
Wood paneling on some of the interior walls will be replaced.
“It’s buckling through age and temperature changes and stuff like that,” Brewer said. “They are going to take that off and redo those.”
Also, a tin ceiling will be installed.
“I think it’s going to look really cool, and I still think it will keep the aesthetic of it being a livery barn,” Brewer said. “We want to keep that historical feel to it.”
Gloria Cross, an officer with the history center, said the main reason behind all of the work on the livery barn in recent years is to be able to host winter events, including the Festival of Trees in December.
With four hanging heaters now inside the livery barn, that will make a big difference for volunteers and attendees to keep warm during the winter events. Previously, there was no heating source in the building.
“We don’t expect it to heat up in there to 75 degrees. We want it to take the bite off,” Brewer said. “That building is cold when you close it up.”
The first phase of the project was completed by Nathan Rittman and Kaleb McKinney with M D Electric of Brownstown in January. A $4,999 Mini Grant allowed for the purchase of materials and funded labor costs to update the electrical wiring in the livery barn, including installing the new heaters and new lighting in the bays.
One part consisted of removing the old shop lights that illuminated the front part of the bays inside the building and replacing them with track lights that can be adjusted to shine throughout each bay. One of the track lights was placed above a large picture of the old Ewing bridge that hangs on the south wall.
Phase 2 of the project involved a crew with Bane and Warren Construction of Brownstown breaking up parts of the old concrete floor and putting in a new one.
Most of the floor on the south end of the livery barn was redone, one of the bays received a new floor and an area near the stage on the east end of the building was fixed.
That was done thanks in part to a pair of grants administered by the Community Foundation of Jackson County through its fall grant cycle — $6,725 from the Jackson County Community Endowment and Bob and Kate Hall Endowment and $7,000 from the Owen-Carr Township Community Fund.
With the third phase, the large grant requires a 15% match, which is $5,625. Brewer said she has from now until the project is completed to raise those funds, and donations, which are tax-deductible, are being accepted.
“We would like to have it by the end of the year,” she said of the matching funds.
The livery barn has been a priority for volunteers because it’s the largest building on the campus.
It was built in the 1870s and later had to be rebuilt after being destroyed by fire in 1899. People used to walk, ride a horse or take a horse and buggy to come to the nearby courthouse, and the horse would stay in the livery barn.
The Robertson family bought the business in 1895 from LeRoy F. Miller. Through the years, the building was converted into a feed store, a barn, a machine shop and a garage. The history center redid the building in 2003, and it now houses large items and tools.