Community Corner

Fridley's Banfill-Locke Center Gets $5K for Preservation

The arts center in a historic tavern is among 25 metro sites funded.

Fridley's has won a $5,000 grant for preservation work at its historic tavern building, according to an announcement Thursday from .

The organization awarded $1 million to 25 historic sites in Twin Cities. Banfill-Locke was the only site in Anoka County to receive a grant. 

Grant amounts ranged in size from $5,000 each for Banfill-Locke and 11 other projects, to $110,000 each for two Minneapolis structures: the Basilica of St. Mary and an 1890 commercial building now housing a group called Emerge.

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the most votes in , earning the full amount of its grant application. (Banfill-Locke's application asked for the maximum grant of $125,000 to pay for improvements to plumbing and electrical systems.)

Banfill-Locke's director, Lia Rivamonte, had this response (via email) to the Partners in Preservation award:

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We are thrilled to be receiving the money and the paint (Valspar donated 100 gallons for each site—we've been sprucing up the place already).

All in all, it's been a great experience. Challenging because of our size but well worth it for the visibility and the chance for us and the rest of the community to get a fresh take on a building and piece of history that we sometimes take for granted.

In fact, that goes for all the sites included in the Facebook contest. Who would have known about the Pioneer Cemetery or the ball field in Shakopee?

Admittedly, we were a bit stymied as to how to address a social media competition when some of us—even few board members don't even use email.

Our participation meant that we had to fast track our knowledge and skills in that regard. Not a bad thing to know in this day and age.

Partners in Preservation really put a lot of thought into the whole program and we are grateful that even though we did not win the big dollars, we were included in something that has surely had a positive affect on the organization now and in the future.

Here are the projects not named above that received Partners in Preservation grants announced Thursday:

  • : $95,000
  • American Swedish Institute, Minneapolis: $90,000 
  • Pilgrim Baptist Church, Saint Paul: $86,000
  • Harriet Tubman Center East, Maplewood: $84,000
  • C.S.P.S. Sokol Hall, Saint Paul: $80,000
  • : $75,000
  • The Soap Factory, Minneapolis: $70,000
  • Christ Lutheran Church on Capitol Hill, Saint Paul: $50,000
  • Fort Snelling Upper Post, Building 67, Hennepin County: $40,000
  • Minnesota State Fair Grandstand, St. Paul: $30,000
  • Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery, Minneapolis: $20,000
  • Chaska Athletic Field, Chaska: $5,000
  • Episcopal Church of Transfiguration, Belle Plaine: $5,000
  • Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul: $5,000
  • Hennepin Center for the Arts, Minneapolis: $5,000
  • James J. Hill House, St. Paul: $5,000
  • Landmark Center, St. Paul: $5,000
  • Mill Ruins Park, Minneapolis: $5,000
  • Minnehaha Park, Minneapolis: $5,000
  • Minnesota Transportation Museum, St. Paul: $5,000
  • , Stillwater: $5,000
  • Wayzata Depot, Wayzata: $5,000


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