The Friends of Mount Auburn has received a $15,000 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund (MCFF) for a preservation assessment of our beloved Washington Tower. Built in 1854, the 62-foot-tall Tower sits at the highest point of the Cemetery and offers some of the best views of Boston and Cambridge around. If we want to guarantee that we can keep it open to the public for many more years to come, it will require structural repairs, restoration of elaborate wood window tracery, improvements to the lighting system, and handicapped accessibility.

With that in mind, an official preservation assessment is our first step in the process. Funded in part by this Feasibility and Technical Assistance Grant from the MCFF, we have hired the award-winning architectural firm McGinley Kalsow & Associates to produce a detailed analysis on how best to preserve the Tower. Their assessment, options for repair and improvements, and estimated budgets will support planning for a full restoration, which will follow in a few years.

You can be part of this important first step towards preserving the Tower too! The MCFF grant requires a dollar-to-dollar match in order to receive the funding, and we are already two-thirds of the way towards completing it. Please make a gift at https://mountauburn.org/give/special-projects/ and help us raise the rest of the funding we need to get started. Thank you for your support of this iconic landmark.