TVHS Awarded Gardiner Grant for Barn Rebuilding, Repurposing, Revitalizing Project

The Bayles-Swezey House at Three Village Historical Society

Setauket, NY - Three Village Historical Society, an educational nonprofit, has been awarded a $350,000 grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation to be used to rebuild, restore, and repurpose the Dominic-Crawford Barn, a historically significant building from circa 1847. The Society, which exists to educate the public about this area’s rich cultural heritage as well as protect and preserve local history, procured the barn with the express intention of reinstating its structural historic integrity and converting it into usable space for both the organization and the public. The money will go directly to this project.

The Society’s plan is to transform the barn into an education center while maintaining its historic integrity. Located in a field at the Society’s headquarters on 93 North Country Road, it will include teaching facilities with necessary tools and aids, exhibit space that will be flexible and interchangeable, as well as archive facilities that will be readily accessible to staff, local educators, students, and the general public. The center will allow the Society to supplement the space currently being used at the Emma S. Clark Memorial Library in Setauket and provide accessible, climate-controlled, secure storage for the preservation of the Society’s many historical artifacts. The Society also plans for the center to include research space with state of the art capabilities, meeting room for small and moderate-sized community groups, and facilities for special community activities and events.

Dominic-Crawford Barn Rendering

With the RDL Gardiner Foundations paramount support, along with a DASNY grant obtained through Assemblyman Steve Englebright, the Society will have a new educational facility that increases meeting and exhibition opportunities for the public. This will enable the Society to expand its educational offerings to larger groups for our out-of-school programs, lecturers, exhibits, and events. It will allow the Society to increase its outreach as well as that of the Gardiner Foundation.

Established in 1987 and currently led by Executive Director Kathryn M. Curran, the primary focus of the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation is the study of New York State history, with an emphasis on Suffolk County. Robert David Lion Gardiner, who passed away in August 2004, was the 16th Lord of the Manor of Gardiner’s Island, NY. To learn more about the Gardiner Foundation, its origins and purpose, please visit www.rdlgfoundation.org. For more information about Three Village Historical Society, its mission and programs, please visit www.tvhs.org.