19 preservation projects across nine states funded to commemorate America’s 250th Anniversary
Preservation Maryland has been awarded a $750,000 Semi-quincentennial grant from the National Park Service to fund a conditions assessment and critical repairs to Fort Frederick’s historic fort walls. Grants from the program’s third year support 19 historic preservation projects across nine states and are given to projects that restore and preserve sites and structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places that commemorate the founding of the nation.
“A joint effort between Preservation Maryland and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, this work will ensure this important historic site is preserved as interpretation is expanded to capture its complicated history for future visitation,” said Laura Houston, director of revitalization initiatives at Preservation Maryland. “In 2026 we will commemorate the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence – America’s 250th. As an organization we remain committed to playing an active role in this storytelling through our own programming and outreach initiatives that include not just restoring historic places, like Fort Frederick, but telling the full story of these resources in our nation’s history and looking ahead to how we contextualize and preserve over the next 250 years.”
Located in Washington County, Fort Frederick tells the story of the social, economic, and political battles fought throughout the nascent nation’s development. Strategically located near the Potomac River, the stone fort—the only one of its kind built by a British colony during the French and Indian War—served an essential role in the French and Indian, Revolutionary, and Civil Wars. Following the fort’s military service, the site was stewarded by a free Black family for over 50 years and served as a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the 1930s.
The Preservation of Fort Frederick is being supported in part by a Semiquincentennial grant from the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior