The project to restore Concord’s gasholder has entered its next phase, and a grant spurred by a Concord native during a return visit is helping it along.
“When I was growing up here in the 1980s, I passed by the Gasholder thousands of times. “And I learned about it in social studies class at Conant School,” said Brian Quinn, as quoted by the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance in a release.
Quinn, returning to the city to visit family over the holidays, saw “Save our Gasholder” signs and heard about the collaborative to stabilize the building and repurpose the two-acre property, Quinn contributed to the project with a $20,000 grant to the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance through his work at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
“The Gasholder was a relic back in the ‘80s,” he said. “I’m excited to see that people from around the community are coming together to find a new life for it.”
The gift was a discretionary grant made through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President’s Grant Fund of the Princeton Area Community Foundation.
The grant is just a small part of what will be needed. A 2021 consultant’s report that lists options for the building and property, including its use as an educational and recreational site to anchor the neighborhood, had estimated costs ranging from $1.5 million up to many millions, depending on details. It took about $600,000 to stabilize the building over the past year.
The Preservation Alliance leads an effort to help Liberty Utilities, which owners the building, Concord and others redevelop the site, which they call “a catalyst for revitalizing the city’s southern gateway.”
For information, check the website www.saveourgasholder.org.