While the COVID-19 pandemic closed the doors of theHistoric Eleutherian College building in Lancaster, IN, to its summertime open-house tours and fall festival, the HEC Board of Directors has been hard at work to get much-needed funding for preserving the pre-Civil War-era building and telling its story.

HEC Board President Jan Vetrhus recently announced the board has been awarded three grants this summer, totaling $48,500. The funds will be used to repair the roof around the bell tower, which had allowed rain to leak into the building. Additionally, the funds will go toward repairing plaster inside the building, refurbishing damaged displays and bringing an arts event to Madison and Jefferson County.

The board was awarded $42,000 from the Indiana Historical Society’s Heritage Support Grants, made possible by the Lilly Endowment Inc.; $3,500 from the Indiana Arts Commission to bring the Louisville Ballet Company to Madison for a special performance, “Movement to Freedom”; and $3,000 from the Dovie Stewart Cox & Chester A. Cox Sr. Memorial Fund and Standiford H. Cox Fund, both administered by the Central Indiana Community Foundation, which will be used to create a video of the upstairs classrooms for visitors who are unable to climb the stairs, and to tell the stories of black students who attended the college.

The ballet company’s performance is to be presented at HEC and at the new theater at Madison Consolidated High School in 2021. Dates will be announced once scheduled.

“We are very humbled and grateful for these grants, which indicate statewide support for our mission to preserve and restore this National Historic Landmark, and to tell its story, from its deep roots in the anti-slavery movement before theCivil War to its role as a public elementary school for the children in and around Lancaster in the early 20th century,” Vetrhus said.

Vetrhus and the entire HEC board want to thank all of those who made these grants possible, including the Indiana Historical Society, Indiana Gov. Eric J. Holcomb and U.S. Rep.Greg Pence for their support of the Indiana Arts Commission, the African American Landmarks Committee of Indiana Landmarks, the Louisville Ballet, and everyone who has worked to help in the preservation of Eleutherian College building and its legacy.