Ft. Gay High School Project Wins $50,000 Fund for Historic Schools Grant

Image of two story brick masonry structure and former school in Ft. Gay, Wayne County, West Virginia.

The Preservation Alliance of West Virginia recently announced a $50,000 Fund for Historic Schools Grant to the Coalfield Development Corporation to support their efforts to adaptively reuse the former Fort Gay High School in Wayne County. The grant will support rehabilitation of the building’s first-floor exterior, including historically appropriate replacement windows and repairs to damaged limestone windowsills, glass block, and brickwork. This work will help prepare the first floor for future community-serving uses, including commercial, municipal, public, and workforce development space.

The former high school had been vacant since its permanent closure in 2013. Since acquiring the property, Coalfield has worked to preserve the historic building and return it to productive community use.  Eight affordable apartments on the second floor are now nearing completion. The broader redevelopment has also created paid, on-the-job construction training opportunities, allowing the project to support both historic preservation and workforce development.

Coalfield Development is a West Virginia nonprofit headquartered in Huntington with a mission of cultivating opportunities for rural people, transforming disinvested places, and generating new prosperity for rural communities through workforce development, community-led construction projects, and social entrepreneurship.

“We are very excited to support the Coalfield Development in their goal to breathe new life into this landmark building. So many of our state’s important architectural buildings and civic buildings are being lost, and it is an honor to play a small role in this critical development,” said Danielle Parker, executive director for the Preservation Alliance. 
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The Preservation Alliance is the state’s leading nonprofit dedicated to historic preservation. The Alliance’s Fund for Historic Schools Grant is a competitive grant program made possible by the Paul Bruhn Historic Revitalization Grant from the National Park Service, Department of the Interior. It was designed to encourage economic development through the renovation and preservation of certified historic school buildings in rural West Virginia communities experiencing high levels of poverty.  When a school closes and remains vacant or underused, the building can deteriorate, become a burden on the community, and attract vandalism or other illegal activity. Nonprofits like Coalfield Development are working with communities to help preserve these special places while finding a new, appropriate use, and the Alliance is a proud supporter. 

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