7-15-2022 9:29am

$200k in Recovery and Preservation Grants for Morris Museum

Another massive grant to a local Morris County Business!

The Morris County Small Business Grant Program has awarded another $15,000 check to the Morris Museum, located at 6 Normandy Heights Road.

Along with the small business check for $15k, the Morris County Board of Commissioners this week unanimously approved a Historic Preservation Trust Fund grant for the museum in the amount of $186,939.

The Morris Museum is located in Morris Township in the “Twin Oaks Mansion,” the former residence of Peter H.B. Frelinghuysen, president of P. Ballantine & Sons Brewery. Designed by the famous architectural firm McKim, Mead, and White, the Neo-Georgian style home was constructed in 1913 and is on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places.

The grant for $186,939 will assist the museum in restoring the 109-year-old slate roof – for which a $250k historical preservation grant was approved last year.

The $15,000 small business grant will assist the museum in recovering from a four-month shut down due to the pandemic.

The Morris Museum – a nonprofit operation – continued to suffer losses in revenue since last year due to lowered admissions, fewer theater ticket sales, suspension of education programming and rentals for private events, and a one-third drop in membership enrollment.

However, the museum was filled with sound yesterday, as three busloads of young students enjoyed an early tour of the museum facility.

Director Selen presented the check surrounded by pieces of a current and popular exhibit: “A Cache of Kinetic Art: Timeless Movements.” It is the fourth and final installment launched in 2018 for artists who responded to a challenge to connect contemporary audiences with 19th-century mechanical music, automata, and timekeeping technologies.

The Morris County Small Business Grant Program was created to provide grants of up to $15,000 to reimburse small businesses and non-profit organizations for specific pandemic recovery expenses incurred on or after March 3, 2021.

To date, $1.9 million remains in the program and it is not too late for small businesses to apply. There is no cost to file an application and no obligations for small business owners other than to provide the required qualifying documents.

Apply for the Morris County Small Business Grant here.

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