Traverse City Record-Eagle

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June 22, 2010

Grant to help preserve Fishtown history

LELAND — A $50,000 grant will help pull together the history of Fishtown.

The Fishtown Preservation Society will use the money to document "the evolution of fishing and Fishtown," said Kathryn Eckert, chairman of the nonprofit group. Newspapers, legal documents, maps and personal stories will be used in a Historic Structures Report, essential to keeping the integrity of the century-old fishing village on the Leland River.

The report is mainly for architectural purposes, but preservation involves more than just blueprints, Eckert said.

"We want to know how the structures were built and used," she said.

The grant, from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Jeffris Heartland Fund, requires $50,000 in matching funds, which Eckert is confident the group can raise. She said they're "well on the way" with donations from locals, summer residents and even visitors who see the restoration that's already been done.

"We have fishing going on," Eckert said. "We're sending two crews out."

The report the society will put together will be sent to the National Trust in about a year, Eckert said, but will be done before then to get feedback from people. She said public input is required, especially when federal and state money is used.

The team gathering the information includes a historic architect, a landscape architect and a cultural consultant. Eckert said the recent award-winning restoration of the Point Betsie Lighthouse in Benzie County was based on information in an Historic Structures Report, which also helps ensure any work is "done to preservation standards," she said.

"We've begun to educate people," she said, "and they won't settle for less."

The Fishtown Preservation Society bought Fishtown in 2007 from the Carlson family for $2.8 million. It has a three-member staff, a 10-member board of directors and an office in the Leland Historical Museum on Cedar Street. For more information, go to www.preservingfishtown.org.

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