FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: President, Deborah Drumm
press@historicstillwater.org
Stillwater, N.J. September 30 – Veteran philanthropist of historic preservation, Ken Woodcock, has pledged a donation of $30,000 to the Historical Society of Stillwater Township (HSST) to be paid in three annual installments beginning in 2021. It is the largest financial commitment that the non-profit volunteer organization has received in its forty-year history.
Woodcock’s three-year grant has been designated for organizational “capacity building”. HSST’s first step in achieving this objective was to improve communications and outreach by expanding its website. The new website is now available to the public and can be accessed https://www.historicstillwater.org/
The funding has also stimulated new programs in history education and genealogy research. On Saturday October 2nd at 2:00 pm, historian Peter Lubrecht will speak on Germans in Stillwater at the 1751 homestead of the Wintermute family (Bonnie Brook Event). The popular Fall Festival will be revived on Saturday October 9th, and will kick off at 10:30 am with a tractor parade (Fall Festival). In addition, the genealogy department has digitized 38,000 documents archived by local family names (Genealogy).
Woodcock, who lives in Washington D.C. and Rhode Island with his wife Dottie, has supported environmental and historic conservation for more than four decades. Trained in engineering at Lehigh University, he was involved in the early days of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. In 1981 he helped to establish the AES Corporation, a global electric company, working until his retirement in 2004.
His preservation projects range in size and scope from the preservation of an historic house built in 1873 for the Reverend Edward Everett Hale in Rhode Island to his involvement in the magnificent Lyndhurst Estate, a 67- acre property in Tarrytown, with a lavish Gothic Revival mansion, once owned by railroad tycoon Jay Gould. On October 16th Woodcock will be honored in Rhode Island with the 2021 “Rhody Award”, the highest recognition in that state for achievements in historic preservation (HSST Receives Grant).
In contrast to the Lyndhurst Estate, the Historical Society of Stillwater is housed in a humble 1842 school building called the “Academy.” The cozy museum and its collection pay tribute to the achievements of early immigrants who worked as farmers, millers, carpenters and other trades of manual labor. For Woodcock, the charming town of Stillwater is a rare oasis of authentic preservation, and HSST has the crucial mission of protecting and documenting it. In short, funding HSST strikes him as a sound investment for the future of New Jersey.
The Historical Society of Stillwater Township is an IRS-recognized 501(c) 3 nonprofit organization. Donations to HSST are tax deductible. Ask your accountant or tax preparer for details.
In the news:
“At return of popular Fall Fest, historical society to honor mayor,” Township Journal, October 8, 2021