FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12/22/2022
Contact: Angelica Diggs, Executive Director
973-744-1796
Montclair History Center receives New Jersey Historical Commission Inclusive History Grant
Montclair, NJ – The Montclair History Center is one of 14 organizations in New Jersey to receive funding from the New Jersey Historical Commission’s new Inclusive History Grant program. This new funding program supports research and interpretative planning at public history and cultural sites in New Jersey to explore under-represented narratives in New Jersey history. The intent is to expand inclusive, community-centered interpretation and resources offered by historic sites and history organizations such as the Montclair History Center.
The original National Register Nomination of the Crane House and Historic YWCA in 1973 focused on the Crane Family, but it did not touch upon the home’s history with enslaved people and servants and also did not interpret a significant period (1920- 1965) when the home, in its original Glenridge Avenue location, served as a segregated YWCA. In 2014, the Montclair History Center underwent a major expansion of its interpretation of the first floor of the Crane House and Historic YWCA to reflect all periods of significance for the historic site. Today, visitors to the Crane House & Historic YWCA museum walk through three time periods from 1796 to 1965 and discuss all of the people who lived, worked and played in the house.
The three periods of significance in the house's history include: the Crane family era including the stories of enslaved people and servants that were part of the household (1796-1800); the period when it was a YWCA for Black women and girls, including boarders (1920-1965); and its transition to a museum, sharing the story of preservation in the formative years of historic preservation advocacy in America (1965-1970). With this critical funding, these stories will now be continued on the upper level of the museum, fulfilling the Montclair History Center’s long-held goal of expanding its inclusive, comprehensive history of the house. Additionally, the re-envisioning of the upper level includes plans for potential exhibit space, allowing the non-profit to continue to expand partnerships with community members and organizations.
This Inclusive History Grant will enable the Montclair History Center to prepare a reinterpretation plan for the second level, which has been part of its strategic plan since 2014. The research phase for this project is critical to gain a better understanding of the women who boarded at the YWCA, Montclair's role in the Great Migration, and the reasons why women traveled northbound, leaving the security of their family and homes in the south. Visitors will also gain an appreciation of how a grassroots movement saved a historic structure in historic preservation's infancy, how choices about what should be preserved were made, how preservation has changed over the years, and how advocacy today can achieve positive results.
Claudia B. Ocello, President & CEO of Museum Partners Consulting, played a pivotal role in the 2014 reinterpretation and will again be working with the Montclair History Center for this project. The project goals include research, community outreach, and collaboration to plan an inclusive reinterpretation plan. The project is a continuation of the Montclair History Center’s commitment to telling a complete, inclusive, and diverse history of the community.
“We are so grateful for this funding,” said Elizabeth Hynes, President of the Montclair History Center Board of Trustees. “Since successfully adding chapters to the telling of the home’s history on the first floor of our museum in 2014, we have strived to obtain funding to do the same on the upper level. This grant allows us to continue to expand our programming in a way that is critical to our mission of preserving and sharing Montclair’s diverse and comprehensive history.
About the Montclair History Center: The Montclair History Center, formerly the Montclair Historical Society, is an independent not-for-profit organization that has been dedicated to preserving, sharing, and educating others about Montclair’s history since 1965. For additional information, please visit the website www.montclairhistory.org or contact the Montclair History Center at 973-744-1796 or mail@montclairhistory.org.
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