Indiana to award $656,000 in federal preservation grants to 12 projects, from church masonry to an Ohio River shipwreck
The Department of Natural Resources' historic preservation division picked eight rehabilitation projects, two archaeology projects and two planning projects. Most grants require a dollar for dollar local or private match.
Indianapolis. Indiana's Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology will award 12 federal Historic Preservation Fund grants totaling more than $656,000 to communities, nonprofits and universities, the state Department of Natural Resources announced in late October.
In most cases the grants require at least a dollar for dollar match of local or private funds, for a total projected investment of more than $1.2 million, the department said. The money comes from the National Park Service, which distributes the Historic Preservation Fund to the states. In Indiana, only nonprofits, educational institutions and local governments may apply, for buildings they own that are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Old churches and schools
Eight of the grants pay for rehabilitation, much of it masonry. Saints Casimir and Adalbert Parish in South Bend receives $75,000 to repair and repoint the brick and limestone of the St. Casimir school, rectory and church. Perry County Grows receives $51,423 for repairs to the former St. Michael School in Cannelton, which it plans to reuse as a hub for local food access, nutrition education and rural entrepreneurship.
Oak Grove Heritage House receives $40,000 for masonry on the former Oxford Presbyterian Church. The Haan Museum of Indiana Art in Lafayette receives $75,000 to stabilize its carriage house for school groups and community programs. The City of Richmond and the Reid Center share $72,258 for fire detection and sprinklers in the former Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church, now a performing arts venue, and the City of Muncie and the East Central Neighborhood Association share $48,600 for the Emily Kimbrough house.
The cities of Terre Haute and Plymouth each receive $75,000, for the gates and chapel of Highland Lawn Cemetery and for the cupola of the 1875 Fire House and City Hall.
A shipwreck and a landscape
Indiana University receives $35,000 to study the wreck of the Alice Dean in the Ohio River, tied to Morgan's Raid in 1863, with non-invasive methods such as side-scan sonar. Ball State University receives $50,000 for an archaeological survey in Morgan-Monroe State Forest. The Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites Corporation receives $50,000 for a cultural landscape report on the New Harmony National Historic Landmark District, and Fort Wayne receives $9,234 for National Register nominations, among them the Phyllis Wheatley Center.
Because the projects are federal undertakings, anyone may ask to be a consulting party or comment on them until Dec. 31. The division is also taking written comments until Dec. 31 on its draft criteria for the next round, which go to the State Historic Preservation Review Board on Jan. 13. It is not accepting applications now.
About this story
501c3.help wrote this story from the sources listed with it, not from material an organization sent. Our editors approved it on Nov. 4, 2026. Stories in The Nonprofit Herald are free, and nothing is asked in return. Editorial rules.
Found an error? Write to [email protected] and we will correct it.
For the organizations in this story: put the badge on your website
Put it on your About page or wherever you list press mentions, rather than in a footer that repeats on every page. It links to this story.
Linking is welcome and never required. Nothing about the story changes either way.