Dunbar Historic District receives $30K grant

The Dunbar Historic District was recently awarded a $30,000 Underrepresented Communities Grant from the National Park Service.

The grant was awarded after the San Marcos Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) encouraged city staff to apply for the grant program which focuses on working toward diversifying the nominations submitted to the National Register of Historic Places.

The grant funding will go toward the nomination of the historic Dunbar Home Economics Building, the Calaboose African American Museum, and the Ulysses Cephas House for the National Register of Historic Places.

“The National Register is a grouping or list of some of the most significant cultural and architectural resources in our nation’s history,” said Ryan Perkins, Chairman of the San Marcos Historic Preservation Commission.

The National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America's historic and archaeological resources.

Obtaining a National Register designation wouldn’t save the properties from being demolished, but it would highlight the significance of the properties and give more reason to preserve them.

“This continues to add to the momentum that has been building over the past few months and several years of saving the historic resources in Dunbar,” Perkins said.

Recently, there have been preservation efforts for several buildings within the district such as the African American Home Economics School Building and the Old First Baptist Church.

“This is an important time for San Marcos to be paying attention to what’s going on at Dunbar and to get involved and to speak up and to speak out,” Perkins said.

The Dunbar Historic District was one of 17 projects across 14 states that received the grant from the National Park Service.

“It’s not just about saving old buildings, it’s also about saving the cultural heritage and the living heritage of the citizens of San Marcos,” Perkins said.

The only other project to be awarded in the state of Texas is the Edwards School National Register Nomination to the City of Gonzales.

For additional information regarding the grant and its recipients, visit https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/urc-grants-2021.htm. To learn more about The National Register of Historic Places, visit https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/index.htm.