America250 Liberty Tree Project - Successful recipient
Project Update - Roberts Stone House, Canonsburg PA
Roberts Stone House Rehabilitation (2022-Present)
The Roberts Stone House rehabilitation is currently underway with the goal of completing this project by end of 2025, pending available funding.
What has been accomplished thus far?
- Election of new Officers & Trustees
- WCCT pursued and achieved the reinstatement of our 501(c)3.
- Borough of Canonsburg will be designating “John Canon’s original plan of lots,” which the Roberts house is within, a Historic & Cultural District.
- The WCCT finalized the scope of work to initiate the bidding process for the architectural/design phase, "Phase 2". This phase will be awarded to the winning architectural firm in October, 2023.
- Multiple grants have been submitted as fundraising efforts continue.
- In April of 2023, the WCCT was awarded a capital grant by the:
Washington County Tourism & Promotion Agency
https://www.visitwashingtoncountypa.com
- "Phase 2" is now underway as the architectural scope has been awarded to City Studio, this Pittsburgh firm will be the lead architect for the duration of this rehabilitation project (https://www.cdc-pgh.com/). .
- The WCCT was recently been awarded a $75,000 grant from County LSA for the year 2024. This money will be combined with other pending funding to initiate "Phase 3" of this rehabilitation, which will consist of structural construction to stabilize the basement/foundation among other top items on the priority list. This construction phase will look to begin as early as Q3, 2024.
- The Roberts Stone House was recently selected for the Washington County site. What an incredible honor! One Liberty Tree will be planted in every county across Pennsylvania as part of the America250 program (https://america250pa.org/PPE:_Liberty_Trees)
Previous efforts :
The Roberts Stone House - Phase 1 (2005-2021)
"Phase 1" of the Roberts House Preservation involved the acquisition of the house and doing the necessary repairs to keep the historic building from further deterioration so that a restoration of the house was possible. The Roberts Stone House came up for sale and was purchased by Andy Tarnik. He approached several citizens about saving the building for the community. An exploratory group was initiated and eventually the WCCT was formed.
The WCCT, with the help of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, was able to raise money and obtain a grant in order to start the rehab. The grant was wisely spent on a new roof and other structural repairs. Grants did not cover all of the costs of this phase, so Ellen Sims stepped in and covered this financial gap with her own funds to finish "Phase 1".
