The historic Louis Armstrong House Museum, the Corona, Queens, home that jazz great Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong bought in 1943 when he was at the height of his celebrity and ready to settle down, has earned one of several preservation grants from a National Parks Service (NPS) fund dedicated to preserving African American history.
The home, where Armstrong lived with his wife Lucille Wilson from 1943 until 1971, was declared a landmark in 1988. It will receive $750,000 from the NPS Historic Preservation Fund’s (HPF) African American Civil Rights grant program, which provides billions of dollars annually for investments in historic preservation projects, to reinforce the structural integrity of the house.
The HPF’s African American Civil Rights grant program was created in 2016 to help maintain and repair historic properties while supporting organizations that are working to exhibit historical information linked to the African-American struggle to gain equal rights.
“Since January of 2021, the National Park Service has invested nearly $193 million in infrastructure and preservation projects for sites that relate specifically to the African American experience across the nation,” Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles, chief spokesperson at National Parks Service, told the Amsterdam News. “And we have also awarded just over a hundred million––and with these grants today, about $135 million––from the Historic Preservation Fund, focusing on preserving and protecting sites associated with Black history outside of national parks and communities across the nation. By the end of this year, we will have awarded $142 million to preservation projects and communities focused on Black history.”
The Alabama Historical Commission, which will receive $75,000 to “develop a traveling virtual reality program using a vintage Greyhound bus to share experiences and stories of Freedom Riders to schools and organizations across Alabama,” is also among this year’s 39 grant awardees.
Other grantees include the DC Preservation League, which will receive $750,000 to replace the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system at Washington’s historic Howard Theatre; the Michigan Strategic Fund, $75,000 to survey local properties related to the sites mentioned in the old Negro Motorist Green Book for consideration in the National Register; and the city of Hopewell, Va., $750,000 to rehabilitate its 140-year-old City Point House-Shiloh Lodge No. 33 of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Virginia Free and Accepted Masons. An HPF awardee is in Arkansas where the Little Rock School Board will receive $749,975 toward the preservation of its Central High School, the site of one of the nation’s more notable scenes of racial turmoil. In 1957, nine young Black students at the school faced racist taunts, threats, and violence from white mobs and the state governor during attempts to desegregate the school. The funds will “replace 22 front façade windows with historically accurate versions,” while the school remains open for daily operations. The National Park Service maintains 429 national parks across the country, its next cycle of HPF historic preservation grants will take place in the fall. Organizations interested in applying should check the National Parks Service website and search for African American Civil Rights grants.