2024 Legacy Fund for Boston Grant Recipients

The Legacy Fund for Boston is a public charity that distributes grant money drawn from local real estate mitigation funds for the purpose of preserving and enhancing Boston’s historic spaces. In 2024, the Legacy Fund awarded a total of $600,000 to 13 projects across nine Boston neighborhoods. Read about each project below.

Map of Legacy Fund for Boston Grantees





Grant Recipients

Beacon Hill Friends House, Inc.

Back Bay/Beacon Hill
Funds provided to repair structural pillars at the Beacon Hill Friends House, a center for Quaker learning and action.

Benevolent Fraternity of Unitarian Church

Roxbury
Funds provided to restore the meetinghouse at the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Urban Ministry, a non-sectarian, non-profit social justice organization that has its offices at the historic First Church in Roxbury, a Boston landmark.

Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of New England

Chinatown
Funds provided to the Chinatown Heritage Center, to improve the physical accessibility at the former Josiah Quincy School. The former Josiah Quincy School was listed in the National Registry of Historic Buildings in 2017 for its contribution to educating immigrant children in the Chinatown community and is the only site in the East coast that is recognized for Chinese-American heritage.

Eliot Congregational Church

Roxbury
Funds provided to help restore Eliot Congregational Church, a historic Boston landmark since its founding in 1834.

Footlight Club

Jamaica Plain
Funds provided to assist in Phase I of restoring Eliot Hall, home to the Footlight Club, America’s oldest community theater. The Footlight Club has produced performances every year since 1877. Eliot Hall is undergoing a long-term renovation as its members and friends in the community return it to its former magnificence and improve safety and comfort for our members and patrons.

Friends of Boston Archaeology

Charlestown
Funds provided to hire a forensic anthropologist as part of the Charlestown 1775 Archaeology Project. Friends of Boston Archaeology is an independent charitable organization dedicated to preserving Boston’s archaeological heritage & sharing it with the public.

Boston Women's Heritage Trail f/b/o Friends of Cedar Grove Cemetery

Dorchester
Funds provided to memorializing the residents of the Home for Aged Colored Women in Boston who are buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery. The Home for Aged Colored Women was an American charitable organization founded in 1860 by a group of abolitionists that provided housing and financial assistance to poor and elderly African American women in Boston. The Friends of Cedar Grove Cemetery is an organization that was established in February 1981 to provide help with improvements for the Cemetery.

Hyde Park Historical Society

Hyde Park
Funds provided to support archival material conservation, and display repairs and upgrades in Weld Hall and Hannan Room at the Hyde Park Library, which was established in 1899. The library’s collection includes a history of the library and a selection of images taken over the years.

Revolutionary Spaces, Inc.

Downtown Boston
Funds provided to the Old State House to help with sub-basement stabilization and water mitigation. Revolutionary Spaces brings people together to explore the American struggle to create and sustain a free society, singularly evoked by Boston’s Old South Meeting House and Old State House. Revolutionary Spaces stewards these buildings as gathering spaces for the open exchange of ideas and the continuing practice of democracy, inspiring all who believe in the power of people to govern themselves.

Second Church in Dorchester Church of the Nazarene

Dorchester
Funds provided to support the third phase of the clock tower restoration and also to pay for high priority roof repairs. The Second Church of Dorchester is a church of the Nazarene in historic Codman Square, a district of Dorchester in Boston. The church was founded in 1804 as the Dorchester Meeting House Company by members from the First Parish Church of Dorchester.

Shirley-Eustis House Association

Roxbury
Funds provided to research past residents of the Shirley-Eustis House stable structures. The Shirley-Eustis House Association exists to preserve, maintain and interpret the Shirley-Eustis House and grounds as a museum for the education and enjoyment of the public. The Association seeks to engage the broadest community in understanding the role of Shirley Place, since its construction as a Royal Governor’s mansion in 1747, as it reflects the beginning of our nation and the history of Roxbury and Boston.

The Friends of Historic Green Street

Jamaica Plain
Funds provided for nominating Historic Green Street (East) commercial corridor for the National Register. Green Street’s history in Jamaica Plain reflects the changes that took place in the community and Boston over the last three quarters of the nineteenth century. Just under a mile long, Green Street was laid out in 1836 by a private speculator and played a key role in Jamaica Plain's commercial and residential development.

Vilna Shul Boston Center for Jewish Culture, Inc.

Back Bay/Beacon Hill
Funds provided for capital restoration, preservation, and rehabilitation of the Vilna Shul History sanctuary and vestibule. Vilna Shul is a cultural center in a historic synagogue building in downtown Boston, whose mission is to spark excitement and curiosity about Jewish culture and the Jewish American immigrant story through vibrant and meaningful experiences.