Hoosick Falls Group Awarded Grant For Historic Wood Block| 07:58PM / Wednesday, March 18, 2015 | |
 A nonprofit group is hoping to return concerts and other performances to the third-floor dance halls of the historic brick Wood Block building. |
HOOSICK FALLS, N.Y. — The Preservation League of New York State has awarded a $6,300 grant to the non-profit CiviCure organization to help preserve the Wood Block building.
The grant was presented at a board meeting of CiviCure on March 2. The grant is the fourth made from the Donald Stephen Gratz Preservation Services Fund of the Preservation League of New York State. CiviCure's mission is the "revitalization of the Hoosick economy through active stewardship of our rich heritage and rural environs and the art inspired by them."
The grant to CiviCure will support the cost of structural and code analyses of the three-story brick building, built in 1878 as the office headquarters for the Walter A. Wood Mowing and Reaping Machine Manufactory. The Wood Block is within the Hoosick Falls National Register Historic District at the corner of Main and John streets.
The building has two large music halls on the third floor, which were used by choral and other musical groups, include the Mower and Reaper Band. After Wood Manufactory ceased operations, the performance spaces continued to serve Hoosick Falls as a public theater. The spaces were renovated after a fire in 1909 and the south music hall has 1920s art deco light fixtures.
Currently, the Wood Block has offices occupying the three first-floor storefronts, while the upper two floors have remained vacant for more than 30 years. CiviCure would like to renew the third-floor performance spaces for live performances, public gatherings, and special events. The second floor was subdivided into apartments many years ago. CiviCure would like to create artist housing on that level.
"Thanks to this important grant from the Preservation League, CiviCure has received a tremendous boost today," said Edward J. Gorman, the organization's president. "Our goal of creating an arts and community-based economic engine that will contribute to the revitalization of Hoosick focuses on the historic Wood Block Building. The Gratz Grant will permit the essential groundwork towards understanding the structure and potential uses of the Wood Block to serve as a rural arts and heritage center."
CiviCure has engaged a consultant to complete a market feasibility study for its proposed uses and is would like to use the NYS and Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credits on the rehabilitation project. CiviCure now needs to assess the physical condition of the Wood Block, determining its structural needs and how the organization's proposed use can meet the NYS Existing Building Code.
Ryan Biggs/Clark Davis Engineering and TAP, Inc. will complete the structural and code reports, respectively.
"The League is New York's only statewide organization providing comprehensive – and predominantly pro bono – services to New Yorkers seeking to identify, preserve, protect, reuse, and promote historic resources as community assets," said Jay DiLorenzo, president of the Preservation League. "The mission of CiviCure, with its focus on the arts, architecture, history and the environment as a fulcrum for community revitalization, is a perfect match for a grant from our Donald Stephen Gratz Preservation Services Fund. Their planned use of New York State and Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credits will serve as a model for other communities, and we're so pleased to be able to help them realize their goals."
The Donald Stephen Gratz Preservation Services Fund was established in 2010 and is funded through a permanently endowed charitable contribution from Thomas J. Schwarz.
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