“I can point to landmarks that would not be standing without Efroymson support,” says Historic Landmarks’ president Marsh Davis of the Efroymson Family Fund.

Ten years ago, the Efroymson family of Indianapolis, led by Lori Efroymson-Aguilera, started a grant program that includes money for historic preservation. The program is administered by the Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) and supports preservation projects throughout the state. Historic Landmarks Foundation screens proposals for CICF, recommending the annual roster of preservation-related grants the family considers for funding. In the ten years since the fund began, Indiana preservation projects have received 156 grants totaling nearly $2.6 million.

Grants from the fund have served as the catalyst that gets restoration off the ground. In Vallonia, for example, an all-volunteer group has struggled for years to save the town’s 1914 hotel.

“We served food at bluegrass sessions…held a ‘Beanafit,’ Christmas auctions, and sent letters to individuals and businesses…but we fell short of a large enough amount to get the project going,” says Joe Jackson Hotel Restoration Committee Chair Sarah Waldkoette. The fund’s $13,000 grant gave the project the spark it needed to make progress and attract other support. Three years later, they’re still holding monthly fish fries and selling homemade noodles for the cause, but the building’s renaissance is assured.

Efroymson money has filled critical gaps in financing, allowing projects to go forward that would otherwise have died, and also puts money in at an early “ugly” phase, stabilizing endangered landmarks and buying time until full-blown restoration and fundraising campaigns get underway.

Other Efroymson grants have helped Historic Landmarks take buildings to a marketable level, like the 1828 Askren House in Indianapolis, partially collapsed and under a demolition threat when Historic Landmarks bought it through our Fund for Landmark Indianapolis Properties (FLIP). An Efroymson Family Fund grant helped us reduce the “scare” factor with a new roof and masonry repair. We found buyers whose restoration of the home is nearly complete.