DEP Receives MHC Grant for Historic Plaque Program
The Downtown Excelsior Partnership (DEP), an organization leading the grassroots effort to revitalization in Downtown Excelsior Springs, received an $2,085.00 grant on October 4th, 2017. The grant was endowed by the Missouri Humanities Council for the purpose of adding Historic Plaques to the buildings of Downtown Excelsior Springs.
The goal of the project is to add historically appropriate plaques that are affixed to the historic buildings in Downtown Excelsior Springs. These plaques will showcase the history of each building and/or structure that is significant to the history of Downtown Excelsior Springs and the Hall of Waters Historic District.
The Historic Plaque Program originally started in 2013, but through the transition of Executive Directors was never completed. Executive Director, Lyndsey M. Baxter stated, “This is an extremely important project that gives us the opportunity to showcase the history of Downtown Excelsior Springs. Since I began as the Executive Director in 2015 we have been trying to determine ways in which we could complete this project and fortunately this grant from the Missouri Humanities Council makes it possible.”
The Downtown Excelsior Partnership Design Committee, made up of volunteers, Mark Spohn and Martha Buckman, will be working with Baxter to complete this process by February 28th, 2018. Through a partnership with the Excelsior Springs Museum & Archives and the Excelsior Springs Historic Preservation Commission, DEP will be able to compile accurate historical information on the twenty participating properties and have them depicted on historic marble plaques that will be affixed to each corresponding building. To best showcase these new additions to Downtown Excelsior Springs, in May DEP will be hosting a Historic Plaque Scavenger Hunt during Historic Preservation Month.
You can follow the Downtown Excelsior
Springs, Missouri Facebook page for more information on the Historic Plaque Program.
For questions or more information regarding this press release, please contact DEP Executive Director, Lyndsey Baxter, at exec@visitesprings.com.
