16 September 2025

For Immediate Release

Maine Historic Preservation Commission Opens Round 1 of the

Historic Community Buildings Grant Program

The Maine Historic Preservation Commission is pleased to announce that Round 1 of the Historic Community Buildings grant program is now open. Applications are due on December 5, 2025, and awards will be announced at the end of January 2026. The Historic Community Buildings grant program is funded by a $10 million dollar bond that Maine voters approved in November 2024. It is anticipated that funding from the bond will be awarded in three grant rounds.

Requirements of the program include but are not limited to the following:

• Grant funds are available for “shovel ready” construction projects only, not for planning, research, or assessment projects, or for producing plans and specifications /bid documents.
• Eligible buildings must be either listed in the National Register of Historic Places or must have been nominated to the Register by the Commission. 
• A 25% local matching share from either private or nonprofit sources will be required.  The matching share may not come from governmental sources. 
• Eligible applicants include non-profit corporations as defined in 13-B MRSA §102.9., as well as units of state, municipal, and local governments.
• All work must be consistent with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties: Preservation or Restoration.
• With some exceptions, the grant-funded work must be carried out in accordance with plans and specifications /bid documents prepared by a licensed architect or engineer.
• A preservation easement whose term varies by the amount of the grant award will be placed on the property and will be held by the Commission.

The Round 1 grant manual and application are posted on the Commission’s website at https://www.maine.gov/mhpc/programs/grants