The Marblehead Museum is getting more assistance in its renovation of the Jeremiah Lee Brick Kitchen.
A $25,000 grant has been awarded to the Museum from the Rogers Family Foundation, in an effort to “help fund the preservation and renovation of the Museum’s Brick Kitchen and Slave Quarters of the 1768 Jeremiah Lee estate,” according to a statement from the museum.
Since acquiring the brick building, adjacent to the mansion, the museum has been working to preserve the building through a number of renovations such as replacing electrical, plumbing, and HVAC systems, among others. When the project is complete, the building will be open as an exhibit and programming space to the public.
“The acquisition of the new brick building, which research shows was used by Lee as a detached kitchen, coach house, and slave quarters, brought back together all of Colonial merchant Jeremiah Lee’s original property,” the statement reads. “Since 2021, museum staff, alongside archaeologists, architectural historians, and scholars, have studied the brick building and the history surrounding it, including that of the enslaved people who worked and lived on the estate.”
The museum has received several other grants to assist in the project. In April, a $19,184 grant from the Expand Mass Stories initiative from Mass Humanities was also received. That funding will be used in support of creating programming related to the brick kitchen, which will “serve the public and school groups and tell the diverse stories of Colonial Marblehead.” A Save America’s Treasures grant from the National Park Service, Department of the Interior was also awarded in March.
A $40,000 Historic Places Planning grant was also awarded from the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Public Humanities Projects program in 2023, which will be used for exhibit planning to tell the stories of enslaved people who lived in the quarters.
“The exhibits will share the largely unknown stories of the lives and experiences of the enslaved people of Marblehead and the maritime communities of the North Shore of Massachusetts,” a statement from the museum reads. “The project will also include a reinterpretation of the Jeremiah Lee Mansion and estate to incorporate the experiences of all those who lived and worked on the property during the late Colonial era, including the enslaved individuals.”
For the last several years, the project has consisted of an 11-person advisory panel, which includes scholars from across the country who study slavery in the Northeast, as well as stakeholders and educators in the community.