The Kimball-Jenkins Estate in Concord, a pond built by the Shakers in Canterbury, the historic Gale School in Belmont and the town forest in Epsom are among the locations receiving money from LCHIP, the state’s preservation fund.
The program, paid for by fees on documents recorded at Registry of Deeds offices throughout the state, is awarding $3.9 million in matching grants to 42 projects this year – 16 are natural resource conservation projects and 26 are historic resource projects.
Perhaps the most unusual site in this year’s list of awards is Turning Mill Pond in Canterbury, an artificial water body that is being preserved for its historic nature as much as its environmental qualities.
The pond is one of nine reservoirs that the Canterbury Shakers created to power the mills used to build the furniture and brooms for which they became famous.
Built in 1817, the pond’s stone dam failed in 1980 and an earthen replacement failed in 2010. LCHIP’s grant of $97,330, if matched by funds expected to be requested at the next town meeting, would fix it.
The pond serves one other important purpose. It is the firefighting pond for the Shaker Village.
Other awards in the Concord region include:
■$200,000 to help fix the roof of the Kimball-Jenkins Estate in Concord.
The estate, which was founded 10 years before the American Revolution and was owned by the same family for six generations, has sweeping grounds and several buildings that are used for a variety of arts and cultural purposes, including a School of Art that has more than 1,300 students every year, plus an art camp for younger children.
■$110,000 to aid decades of efforts to save the Gale School in Belmont by moving it off school property.
Out of use since 1997, the 1894 Stick-style building behind Belmont Middle School is in rough shape. Last spring, the Shaker Regional School District sold the district-owned building to the nonprofit Gale School committee for $1, setting the stage for a push for rehabilitation.
The plan is to move the 125-ton building off property owned by the school district so it can be rehabilitated and reused. The school would have to be shifted over Bryant Field to Route 106.
■$47,000 to help plans to expand the town forest in Epsom.
■One of the smallest grants is $9,200 to help The Tilton School help pay for a planning study for the Charles Tilton Mansion on the property of the private school. The building houses the Lucian Hunt Library and the Daly Arts Center.
Grant recipients are required to provide at least one matching dollar from another source for every dollar received from the state through LCHIP.