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RALEIGH — The North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office on Thursday announced $9,172,500 in federal grant funding for 22 historic preservation projects in 18 counties, including Beaufort County, to provide recovery assistance for historic properties damaged by hurricanes Florence and/or Michael that are listed or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

Funding from the congressionally appropriated Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund (ESHPF) administered by the National Park Service (NPS) allows the State Historic Preservation Office (HPO) to provide grants tied to historic properties in these counties that FEMA declared eligible for federal disaster funding. The program is designed to address historic property needs unmet through other funding sources, such as FEMA or insurance.

Local governments and non-profit organizations were eligible to apply for the grants to fund repairs or resiliency planning and surveys to help our state’s cultural resources be better prepared for future events.

The list of applicants that were awarded sub-grant funding includes Arts of the Pamlico, which received $750,000 for structural, masonry and window repairs at the Turnage Theatre, and Beaufort County High School Alumni Corp., which received $750,000 for projects related to heating, ventilation and air conditioning, electrical, plumbing replacement, masonry repair and door repair projects at Pantego Rosenwald School No. 2, which was an eight-teacher school of masonry construction.

“This program provides much-needed funding to not only help repair irreplaceable historic properties after storm damage, but to help local governments and non-profit organizations better prepare for future disasters,” said Reid Wilson, secretary of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. “These funds will help to ensure our state’s treasured cultural resources are included in future resiliency planning efforts.”

A table outlining the grant recipients, award amounts, and project scopes of work is available on the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources website.

The federal grant establishing this program comes from the $47.8 million appropriated by Congress through the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) for assistance to communities impacted by hurricanes Florence, Michael and Typhoon Yutu. The HPF uses revenue from federal oil and gas leases on the Outer Continental Shelf, providing assistance for a broad range of preservation projects without expending tax dollars.