Hale Farm & Village Receives $250,000 for Renovations

The work of paying for improvements just got $250,000 easier. The museum, which is part of the Western Reserve Historical Society, received the money in an appropriation from the Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission.  The money will reimburse a portion of a three-year restoration project on Hale’s 90-acre grounds.

“We now are doing pottery on site and we have a functioning glass blowing operation. Those are two major trades we weren’t able to offer for a while,” said WRHS President Gainor Davis.

The three-phase renovation started in 2007 and cost $725,000. The work also included renovation of the 1852 Meetinghouse, the Jagger House and the Saltox house, relocated to Hale from Streetsboro, Bath and Richfield, respectively. Historic barns and outbuilding were also restored.

Hale will also benefit from the recent $12 million donation from the estate of Kathleen S. Kay Crawford. Hale houses a collection of 19^th century carriages from the Crawford collection on exhibit at the John A. McAlonan Carriage Manufactory on the grounds.

Crawford is the wife of  Frederick C. Crawford, the founder of the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum.  Back in 2009, the then 94-year-old widow came to Cleveland to protest the Historical Society’s plan to sell off 24 antique cars WHS deemed not locally significant.

The cars and other objects including Civil War generals’ signatures were sold, WHRS said at the time,  to get out of approximately $5 million in debt.

Davis described the current Crawford donation – to be administered by the Cleveland Foundation – as far-reaching and unexpected.

The Historical Society has $15 million in endowments; the Crawford donation adds another is $12 million and $6 million to $8 million is held in a third-party trust, Davis said. “We’ll probably get another $2 million when the estate is closed. This is so exciting. It comes for us at a great time.”

About 50,000 visitors come to Hale Farm & Village every year. The figure represents half of the total attendance to the Historical Society. The summer season at Hale begins June 1.