Grants

ROW continually provides funds to aid groups interested in improving Downtown Wilmington. A grant request must first be submitted to ROW for consideration by the Board. Scroll to the bottom of the page for information about submitting a request.

 

Between 1871 and 1873, members of the recently emancipated black community erected the building, known as Giblem Lodge. It became home to the second Black Masonic lodge in North Carolina, founded in 1866 not long after the end of the Civil War. The building would serve many other purposes, such as a polling precinct. It functioned as a thriving marketplace, bringing together inventors, craftsmen and artisans for the state’s first “Colored Industrial Exposition.”

Residents of Old Wilmington is sponsoring the first step: a structural engineers report.

Historic Wilmington Foundation (HWF) will bring in consultants, apply for grants and support the overall journey to revitalize the building. Once complete, the report will clear up the needs of the building and give a better idea of how much it all will cost. HWF and Giblem Lodge can then formulate a scope of work and send components of the project out to bid.

 

  

Over the last several years we have distributed over $62,000 to groups ranging from the Hannah Block Historic USO to the Dreams Center and Bellamy Mansion. 

 

ROW bought a piece of art and donated it to the City in 2010.  If you've admired the "Southern Hospitality" sculpture of the Venus flytrap at the foot of Market St. you've seen the work of ROW's Grants Committee.

 

 

Through targeted fundraising activities, ROW supports community projects that:

●      enhance the natural beauty of the downtown Historic District

●      are capital improvements – especially those that maintain/ restore downtown structures

●      foster the health of downtown arts and cultural programs or facilities and other community services that are important to ROW

●      are one-time in nature, and do not establish a regular pattern of support

●      reflect the diversity of the needs of the Historic District

●      potentially have the ability to leverage other available funding for maximum community impact