Heritage Hall gets grant for painting
NORTH SMITHFIELD — Heritage Hall at 101 Greene St., Slatersville, will hopefully be looking a bit smarter this summer thanks to a painting program assisted by a General Assembly grant.
Members of the North Smithfield Heritage Association met with state Sen. Melissa Murray, D-Dist. 24, Woonsocket and North Smithfield, on Thursday to collect a $4,000 legislative grant she obtained for the painting project.
The Heritage Association maintains the former Union Grange #13 Hall on Greene Street and the equally historic Forestdale School, a one-room schoolhouse built in 1877 at 190 School Street in Forestdale.
Elizabeth Faricy, a member of the Association’s board of directors, said the funding obtained by Murray will be combined with Association fundraising to cover an expected total cost of $14,000 for the painting work.
Murray said she sought the grant for the Association to continue the support her predecessor, Senator Marc Cote, lent the local non-profit organization over the years. Cote retired before the last election, paving the way for Murray to move from the Woonsocket City
Council to her current legislative roll.
“This was a grant traditionally given by Sen. Cote, so I am passing on that tradition,” Murray said. In addition to meeting the Association’s board members, Murray was also given a tour of the circa 1897 Grange Hall. The building had been originally constructed as the St. Luke Episcopal Mission serving families of the Slatersville mill village and later became the Union Grange #13 home in 1913, a role it served until 1994 when the Grange gave it to the North Smithfield Heritage Association.
The Association has been upgrading the building over the years and adding needed modern features such as handicapped access improvements, updated bathroom facilities and a new roof. The hall can tbe rented from the non-profit Association for events and has kitchens serving the main hall and the lower level hall in the building. The main hall seats a maximum of 100 people, the lower hall, 75, and there is also a conference room for meetings of 18 people.
The paint on the building is the next improvement needed, tand Richard F. Keene, Association board president, said in addition to covering peeling and deteriorated sections of paint, the project will also address the varying colors used din past painting projects.
“There are four colors on the building now and (Association member) Louise Vanhouwe likes the blue gray at the top,” Keene, a former Primrose Fire Department chief, said of the plan to make the building one solid color on its wood siding.
“I want to see it all one color and if blue gray makes you happy,” Keene told Vanhouwe at the Hall, “that makes me happy.”
Faricy said the Association received about $16,000 in grant funding over the years with Cote’s help and noted Murray’s assistance would help the organization to continue to make needed improvements in the future.
“This will be a good addition to the projects we have already done and hopefully we will be able to raise the rest of the funding we will need this summer,” Faricy, a former local town administrator and past member of the town council, said of the paint project.