Kimball Jenkins, a prominent and cherished Concord landmark, has received a $202,000 matching grant award from the N.H. Land and Community Heritage Investment Program to support restoring the roof and upper woodwork of its 1882 brick High Victorian Gothic mansion.
Kimball Jenkins’s LCHIP award is the largest historic resource project grant of the year. It follows close on the heels of the 2017 grant the nonprofit received for its $21,000 carriage house roof restoration project. Embraced by community supporters, that project was the first of that grant round to be successfully completed. LCHIP funds projects throughout the state of New Hampshire, giving a total of $3.9 million to 42 historic resource projects and 16 natural resource conservation projects this year.
With this matching grant, LCHIP is challenging the greater Concord community to step up and help preserve the superbly crafted 140-year-old mansion, which tells the story of one of the city’s founding families living on Concord’s original stretch of Main Street. Total project cost is estimated at $400,000. Grant recipients are required to provide at least one matching dollar from another source for every dollar received from the state through LCHIP.
“We’re so grateful to LCHIP for their steadfast commitment to historic preservation, and for putting their trust in Kimball Jenkins again this year – this time on a much larger scale,” said Althea Barton, KJ’s director of outreach and development and historic preservation project manager. “So many people have a connection to Kimball Jenkins. Now they can be part of its legacy.”
Restoration work is expected to begin in the spring of 2020. The mansion is in remarkably good condition thanks to the superb quality of the original construction and the care of the Kimball family through six generations. The work will be done using traditional techniques and materials. Skilled craftspeople will painstakingly restore the original slate and copper mansion roof, repair and paint the ornate woodwork of the nine hip-and-gable dormers, and tie the roof and trim together with new copper flashing. With proper care, the roof should last another hundred years.
“This major grant acknowledges Kimball Jenkins’s architectural and historical significance, as well as its important role as the northern anchor of Concord’s downtown,” commented Ward 4 Councilor Byron Champlin. “The work made possible by this grant is critical to the well-being of the mansion, so it’s important that we all pitch in to match the grant.”
Kimball Jenkins’s board chairman, Larry Morgan, noted, “Thanks to LCHIP and generous private donations, we’ve reached $250,000 of our $400,000 goal, so we’re well on our way to success. This is a great milestone for our organization, and I’m confident our community of supporters will help us meet this exciting challenge.”
Nearly 8,000 people visit Kimball Jenkins each year, enjoying art exhibits, historic tours, dinner parties, weddings, meetings, tea parties and other community events in the mansion. Concord’s Master Plan delineates the city’s goal of safeguarding its cultural and architectural heritage by protecting and encouraging the rehabilitation of historic structures.
The 18-member LCHIP board of directors selects the grant recipients as the culmination of a rigorous application and review process. LCHIP’s board chairwoman, Amanda Merrill of Durham, observes, “The LCHIP Board and staff have the responsibility and privilege of helping to protect natural, cultural and historic resources across New Hampshire. It is a pleasure to work with dedicated colleagues from local government, citizens groups and non-profits to preserve the places that make our state special.”
For more on the project, or to make a tax-deductible donation, visit kimballjenkins.com/mansion-restoration.
Kimball Jenkins
