Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan Development for Historic Sugartown

FAIN: PG-252840-17

Historic Sugartown, Inc. (Malvern, PA 19355-3304)
Heather P Reiffer (Project Director: May 2016 to March 2021)

A consultation with a preservation specialist to develop an emergency preparedness and response plan for the historic district of Sugartown, a restored 19th-century rural village that provided goods and services to its surrounding farming community.  Historic Sugartown’s collections are largely domestic, industrial, and agricultural artifacts.  Of note are the bookbinding tools and equipment once owned by rare book conservators Fred and Elke Shihadeh, including over 2,000 embossing tools from c. 1780-1850 manufactured in Philadelphia.  Considered one of the largest collections of its kind in the nation, these tools are studied by scholars and used as teaching resources during bookbinding classes and workshops.

Historic Sugartown, Inc. (HSI) respectfully requests a Preservation Assistance Grant of $6,000 to develop an Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan for HSI's ten structures and collections. Historic Sugartown's historic structures and collections offer visitors, students and scholars the opportunity to explore how America's growing economy and the vital need for transportation networks influenced the creation of rural communities in Chester County, Pennsylvania in the years following the American Revolution. The development of an Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan at Historic Sugartown will support the organization's strategic objective of enhancing the stewardship of its structures and collections, and will serve as a model for a wider effort to improve emergency preparedness among historical and cultural organizations in the Suburban Philadelphia region.