Portland Preservation Awards and Horse-Drawn Carriage Tours:

wagonFunding provided to the Portland Museum by the Community Arts Grant program at the Fund for the Arts enabled the museum to enrich its offering of cultural programming to an economically disadvantaged neighborhood. Portland is rich in history and local culture and the Portland Museum finds ways to preserve, interpret, and present that heritage. An example of the type of program we were able to provide with the support of the Community Arts Grant occurred on Sunday, June 9, 2013 when the Portland Museum and Portland Preservation Alliance teamed together to celebrate historic preservation in Portland.

Our program had three components: horse drawn tours of the Portland historic district, tours of the Squire Earick House, and presentations of historic preservation awards to honor individuals who have shown a dedicated commitment to preservation in the Portland community.

New Directions Housing Corporation was honored for their preservation work, which includes the Peter Portman House on Northwestern Parkway. Nathalie Andrews, Executive Director of Portland Museum, noted that the organization has consistently respected historic buildings by renovating them into affordable housing. New Directions Housing Corporation is also playing a huge effort in the Portland neighborhood “Save Our Shotguns” program.

Local historian Rick Bell received the individual preservation award. Bell’s extensive research assisted the Portland Museum in dating its historic Squire Earick House to the year 1819. Located at 34th Street and Rudd Avenue, the historic residence is thought to be the oldest timber frame building in Jefferson County. Nathalie Andrews stated, “For twenty or more years Rick Bell has been researching and promoting the history and heritage of Portland. He’s been so helpful to every conceivable project in providing information and images and his in-depth knowledge of Portland history.”

Our preservation event also included tours of the historic Squire Earick House and horse-drawn carriage tours of the Portland Historic District. Touring the Earick House enabled visitors to see preservation in action and understand the discovery process by viewing open walls and retrieved wallpaper samples, touching cut nails, and seeing the house’s exposed timbers. It was a fascinating tour! Historian Rick Bell rounded out the day’s events by leading horse-drawn carriage rides. Riders reveled in the stories of Portland’s past and historic figures.
Portland Museum thanks the Fund for the Arts for its generous support. Please “like us” on Facebook and visit our website www.goportland.org to join our mailing list and receive notification of additional Portland Museum events! The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, provides operating support to Portland Museum, Inc. with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

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