The Glass Press Building, the inside of which is pictured here, received funds for a new roof as part of a historic revitalization project. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)
Two historic parts of the Marietta community received grant funds for preservation projects on Friday. Colored Glass
Ohio History Connection announced Friday that it is awarding grant funds to the Mid-Ohio Valley Players Theater and the owner of the Glass Press Building to fund repairs as part of historic preservation efforts.
The MOVP Theater, located at 229 Putnam St., received a grant for $107,672. The Glass Press Building is located at 217 Union St. and 212 Putnam St. and was awarded $93,428 in grant funding, according to the release.
OHC Executive Director Megan Wood said the organization houses the state historic preservation office, so they are able to apply for national programs that help with historic preservation.
The OHC in partnership with Heritage Ohio applied for the Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grant Program. The organization then decided to make sub-grants available for applications. They awarded a total of eight sub-grants in four communities, Marietta, Coshocton, Millersburg and Cambridge, according to the release.
The Glass Press Building is one of two projects in Marietta that received money for a historic revitalization project. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)
Heritage Ohio will oversee the subgrants, the release said.
The Ohio History Connection was founded in 1885 with the mission to preserve and share stories as a way to provide people a way to meaningfully connect with Ohio’s past through historic sites and museums, preservation, interactive exhibits and events and dynamic resources and research, according to their website.
Heritage Ohio has a similar mission. The group fosters economic development and sustainability through preservation of historic buildings, revitalization of downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts and promotion of cultural tourism, according to their website.
Paul Bruhn grants were created to foster economic development in smaller communities, according to the release.
“So the Paul Bruhn Program is for preservation projects in smaller communities. We run the (subgrant) program with Heritage Ohio and then they get granted out to smaller communities who can work on a variety of projects,” Wood said.
The Mid Ohio Valley Players Theater received funds for exterior work as part of a historic revitalization project. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)
MOVP Theater Grant Coordinator Suzanne Walker was at the grant announcement ceremony Friday. She thanked the Ohio History Connection and Heritage Ohio for the grant funds and explained the theater’s plan for the money is to work on its facade.
The money will be used for extensive masonry repairs to the facade and the roof will be fixed, the release said about the repairs.
“We have been working diligently,” Walker said of the theater’s efforts. “Our goal is to be able to get the theater as close to the original as we can. The ultimate goal is to be able to be part of a thriving arts district for Marietta and that grant gets us to the next step in being able to do that.”
The exterior work on the theater will make a difference to people when they drive by it in Marietta, Wood said.
Representatives for the owner of the Glass Press Building were not at the ceremony, but they were at the building to talk about their plans afterward.
Ohio History Connection Executive Director Megan Wood talks to an audience about Marietta projects that received the National Park Service’s Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grant Program funds at the Mid Ohio Valley Players Theatre in Marietta on Friday. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)
The Glass Press Building is actually two buildings, located at 217 Union St. and 212 Putnam St., according to the owner’s representative Seth Murphy. The building is owned by 217 Union Square LLC and the grant funds will be used to repair the roof because it is leaking, Murphy said.
The company is still in preliminary planning stages for the building and is in the early stages of conducting feasibility studies to determine what to do with the building, according to Murphy.
“Our plans are to have a multi-use (building) and see what fits best for the community, that’s what the (feasibility) studies are for, so they can tell what will be best for the community, what will work,” Murphy said. “We’d like to see some commercial (business) done here. We’d like to see some shared office space somewhere on maybe the second floor, maybe the third floor. Some nicer apartments maybe, maybe some Airbnbs to support the theaters and stuff like that.”
The media release said that plans for the Glass Press Building also include a restaurant.
Once the roof work is done the company can start planning and working on the building, Murphy said.
“We’ll keep pursuing (this) step by step until we get there,” he said.
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