< Back to front page Text size – +

Hull carousel, other historic sites split $1 million

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 16, 2009 02:32 PM

(National Trust for Historic Preservation)

By Jazmine Ulloa, Globe Correspondent

For more than 30 summers, Sandra Swartz spent her summers in Hull, where she would ride the wooden, now 81-year-old carousel at Nantasket Beach.

"It was always glistening," said Swartz, 53, who grew up in East Milton and remembers birthday parties and weddings by the Paragon Carousel. In recent years the colors of the merry-go-round have faded, but it still makes people smile, she said.

Now the carousel's caretakers have something to smile about too. In a contest announced in April by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express, the handcrafted carousel -- one of only 150 left in the country -- beat out 25 other historic and cultural sites throughout Greater Boston competing for a portion of $1 million in preservation grants.

Online voters chose the historic wooden Paragon Carousel as the winner of the five-week competition, which ended mid-May. Friends of the Paragon Carousel will receive $100,000 to replace the popular attraction’s doors, restore its windows, and upgrade its safety measures.

"It's just a place that brings people together," said Judeth Van Hamm, a board member at the Friends of the Paragon Carousel. "And I think frankly that's why we won."

Eleven additional sites were also chosen to receive the grant funding they applied for by a committee comprised of civic and preservation leaders and representatives from Partners in Preservation.

Those winners were announced today at a press conference at the Park Plaza Hotel and include: the Crane Estate, Edgell Memorial Library, Eliot Congregational Church of Roxbury, Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, Lowell’s Boat Shop, Museum of African American History, Old North Church, Perkins School for the Blind, Salem Old Town Hall, United First Parish Church, and Vilna Schul.

The remaining 13 historic sites will receive $5,000 each from the program.

“These places help tell the story about what makes this city’s history unique and special,” Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, said at the conference.

Partners in Preservation launched in 2006 and pledged to give $5.5 million in the next five years to historic places nationwide for preservation and restoration. Since then, they’ve awarded grants to sites in San Francisco, Chicago, and New Orleans.