Amherst County’s Tusculum awarded $35,000 grant

Sweet Briar College’s attempts to restore a piece of Amherst County history got a boost recently when the school was awarded a $35,000 grant to advance development of what will become the Tusculum Institute.

The historic 18th century Amherst County home called Tusculum now sits in pieces in a dairy barn at Sweet Briar College, but plans are in the works to rebuild the structure and turn it into a center for community history and outreach.

The Virginia Department of Historic Resources has awarded a $35,000 grant to Sweet Briar to advance the development of the Tusculum Institute as a resource center for historic preservation.

Formalized under a written agreement signed by DHR Director Kathleen Kilpatrick and SBC President Elisabeth Muhlenfeld on May 30, the grant will help build the capacity of the institute to carry out its educational and outreach mission.

The grant will fund the sharing of online material about sustainable historic preservation techniques; a three-dimensional architectural model of Tusculum; and “Teaching with Historic Places,” a conference to be held at Sweet Briar in 2009.

Tusculum was once located north of Sweet Briar in New Glasgow, in what is now the community of Clifford. The plantation house was dismantled in 2006 to make way for development.

The house, which was the family home of the mother of Sweet Briar College founder Indiana Fletcher Williams, now awaits reconstruction.

Once Sweet Briar acquired the home, the school entered into a standing partnership agreement with the DHR, which subsequently established a satellite office at the College in 2007.

Under that foundational agreement, the College and DHR agreed to cooperate in nurturing the development of the Tusculum Institute. The grant award is designed to strengthen that public-private partnership and carry it to a new level.

“(The grant) will help the Institute to create critically needed tools for the region and for Sweet Briar that can be replicated and used throughout Virginia and perhaps the nation,” said Bob Carter, director of the DHR’s community services division and the agency’s on-site representative at Sweet Briar.

“It will help the Institute to educate young people and citizens about the environmental, economic and cultural value of preserving historic buildings and historic places,” Carter said.

For DHR director Kilpatrick, a 1974 graduate of Sweet Briar College, the collaboration makes perfect sense.

“This is a no-brainer,” she said. “We have a common purpose and vision, and the opportunity to really do some good here for the community and the region and the Commonwealth and beyond.”