Ohio History Connection announces 2026 grant recipients

• The village of McDonald received $16,696 for “The McDonald Millworkers Trail.” The steel industry had been at the center of life in McDonald. To honor its heritage, the village is creating a “Millworkers Trail” in Woodland Park. The trail will include interpretive signage about McDonald history, notable events, the local steel industry and the experiences of millworkers. Trail developers will collaborate with local schools to plan programs using the trail. Grant funds will be used to purchase supplies to build and promote the trail.
• Youngstown State University received $17,574 for “Mahoning Valley 250 Exhibit: A Celebration of Change-Makers and Their Communities.” The project will draw on the talents of historians at the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, Trumbull County Historical Society and the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor. Youngstown State will spearhead the development of exhibits showcasing the Mahoning Valley’s place in American history, in celebration of “America 250.” Plans call for an exhibit at the Center of Industry and Labor and online and traveling-banner exhibits. Exhibit themes include Indigenous History, the Underground Railroad, Immigration, Innovation in Manufacturing and Amusement and Recreation. Grant funds will primarily support staff time for the project partners and the costs of exhibit design.

Statewide Ohio History Fund Grant recipients

• America’s Packard Museum (Dayton): $4,000 for “Driving Forward Strategic Planning at America’s Packard Museum.” The History Fund grant will enable the museum to hire a facilitator to coordinate the development of its first strategic plan.
• City of Cleveland Heights: $4,137 for the “Cleveland Heights Scanning and Conversion Initiative.” The project will digitize and make available historical records that relate to the evolution of the city over the last 100-plus years.
• City of Euclid: $19,327 for “Shore Cultural Centre Historic Preservation Restroom Rehabilitation Project.” Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Shore Cultural Centre served as Euclid High School until 1982. Described at a “significant piece of Euclid’s architectural and social history,” the project will make two of its restrooms accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Dayton Preservation Works: $19,237 for “Dunbar Historic District—Emanual Hoover House Renovation.” The Emanual Hoover House, built in 1883, is a contributing structure to Dayton’s Dunbar Historic District and is sited across from the home of poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. The grant will continue the rehabilitation of the Hoover House. Proceeds from its eventual sale will continue to finance the Dunbar Historic District’s efforts to preserve and rehabilitate historic housing stock in the city.
• Downtown Chillicothe: $13,549 for “Mail Pouch Mural Restoration.” Downtown Chillicothe will restore the historic Mail Pouch Mural, a once-common, but now rare, example of early 20th-century advertising art and one of the downtown’s most-recognizable landmarks.
• Fort Recovery Historical Society (Fort Recovery): $19,000 for “3rd Annual Beyond the Battlefield: Native Days for 4th Graders and the Public.”
• Friends of the Museums, Inc. (Marietta): $15,300 for ‘Invisible Ground in Historic Marietta.” The project engages students and adult visitors to the Campus Martius Museum by creating virtual reality experiences around two of its iconic places.
• Great Trail Council, Boy Scouts of America (Stow): $20,000 for “Historic Camp Manatoc Dining Hall Fire Suppression System.”
• Loveland Museum Center (Loveland): $5,194 for “Digitization of 3-D Replica of Late 19th Century Loveland.” The grant will enable the museum to install an interactive digital display about the effect of the railroad on Loveland in the late 19th century.
• Mariemont Preservation Foundation (Cincinnati): $3,500 for “Ferris House Museum Chimney Repair.”
•  Sauder Village (Archbold): $13,940 for “Sauder Village Light Mitigation Project.” Ultraviolet and infrared light fades colors and damages museum artifacts if not blocked. Sauder Village proposes using time-tested best practices to protect artifacts displayed in its 1920s Main Street site.
• Worthington Historical Society (Worthington): $9,000 for “Old Rectory Structural Support Project.” The project will allow the Worthington Historical Society to stabilize the structure of its circa 1845 headquarters, the Old Rectory.

About: Ohio History Fund grants help support local history and preservation-related projects in communities throughout Ohio. The grants are funded by Ohio taxpayers who select “Ohio History Fund” as a donation fund on their state tax returns. For just the average donation of $13, donors can help repair a roof on a historic home, expand a popular history tour at a local museum and provide public access to rare museum collections. For more information, visit ohiohistory.org/historyfund or contact the History Fund at hi*********@*********ry.org.

About: The Ohio History Connection is a statewide history organization with the mission to spark discovery of Ohio’s stories. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization chartered in 1885, the Ohio History Connection carries out history services for Ohio and its residents. This includes housing the State Historic Preservation Office and the official state archives and managing more than 50 sites and museums across Ohio. For more information, visit ohiohistory.org. The Greater Columbus Arts Council and the Columbus Foundation provide support for Ohio History Connection programs.

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