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The Washington County Community Foundation (WCCF) recently announced that is the recipient of a $100,000 grant from the Allegheny Foundation in support of operating expenses for the historic Samuel T. Brownlee House.

The grant will be issued at $25,000 per year from 2015 to 2018, the estimated time needed to secure an endowment of $500,000 to provide for the Brownlee House’s operating expenses in perpetuity.

The Brownlee House, which was built in 1848, was donated to the WCCF in December 2013 by William and Saundra Stout. Described by one local historian as “one of the best preserved and maintained formal Georgian-Greek Revival houses in Washington County,” the building is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Community Foundation, which relocated its offices to the second floor of the Brownlee House earlier this year, is the in process of rehabilitating the rest of the structure for use as a Scotch-Irish house museum and training center. This is the WCCF’s first grant from the Allegheny Foundation.

“The recent fire at the historic Century Inn was a harsh and painful reminder of how quickly our historic treasures can be lost to us,” said Betsie Trew, WCCF President & CEO. “Without the initiative of community leaders, who 50 years ago dedicated themselves to preserving the David Bradford House in Washington, that marvelous building surely would have been lost. Now is our time to dedicate ourselves to preserving another piece of history, the Samuel T. Brownlee House, for future generations. At the Community Foundation, we are honored to have been given this tremendous responsibility and are extremely grateful to the Allegheny Foundation for providing this operational grant to assist us in our preservation efforts.”

Excluding the donation of the House itself, this $100,000 grant is the largest single gift the WCCF has received for the House and brings to $450,000 the total amount received from all sources.

Based in Pittsburgh, the Allegheny Foundation concentrates its giving in the Western Pennsylvania area and confines most of its grant awards to programs for historic preservation, civic development, and education. It is one of several private foundations associated with the late billionaire philanthropist Richard Mellon Scaife, who passed in July 2014.

The WCCF promotes and facilitates charitable giving in the community and recently facilitated a successful day of giving, which will result in unrestricted grants to local charities of $735,000. For more information about the WCCF, please visit www.wccf.net.

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