Schoolfield museum project gets cash injection

The former Dan River Personnel Building, 917 W. Main St., is now owned by the Schoolfield Preservation Foundation, which is working to turn it into a cultural center and museum celebrating the community’s textile history.

By: Denice Thibodeau | GoDanRiver
Published: January 05, 2010

Two successful grant applications and one sizable anonymous donation are helping the Schoolfield Preservation Foundation move forward with its plans to renovate the former Dan River Welfare Building, which the group purchased about a year ago.

The goal is to turn one floor of the building into the Schoolfield Village Museum and Cultural Center and to rent the other floors out to businesses — a plan that will provide income to help maintain the museum.

Jim Hyler, president of the group’s board of directors, said the foundation had recently received a $20,000 grant from the J.T.-Minnie Maude Charitable Trust, another grant of $10,000 from the Richard and Caroline T. Gwathmey Memorial Trust and an anonymous donation of $10,000 to help with necessary renovations.

“We’re thrilled to death,” Marie Nales, secretary of the foundation’s board, said.

Nales said the money from the J.T.-Minnie Maude Trust will be used to replace a bathroom on the first floor that does not meet code requirements for handicap accessibility. The money will let the group build two handicap accessible bathrooms on the first floor.

“We’ve been getting bids for the project and we hope to start it in the next month,” Nales said.

Hyler said that the existing bathroom will eventually be replaced by an elevator, though there is no money for that project at this time.

The money from the Gwathmey Trust will be used for exterior repairs that can include anything that will “improve and stabilize the exterior of the building,” Nales said.

The anonymous donation can be used in any way the foundation needs to use it, Nales said.

“There were no restrictions on it,” Nales said, adding that it would likely be used for a combination of operating expenses and exterior repairs.

Nales said the grant-writing process was a “real learning experience,” and she was pleased to get positive responses with some of the first they had written. A class she and another board member took last summer helped them weather the process, Nales said.

Another endeavor Nales is involved with for the foundation is trying to get the property listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

“We would really like to see that happen,” Nales said.