Land trust's spring fete highlights efforts to preserve historical farm

A recent grant has helped a local non-profit preserve and restore the historical site of the Dennis Farm, which was founded over 200 years ago by a free African-American family.

The Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust’s president and CEO Denise Dennis drew sustained applause during her remarks announcing the at the Spring Fete & Fundraiser at the National Constitution Center on Thursday night.

The land trust is a non-profit organization created to preserve and restore the historical site of the Dennis Farm, which was founded over 200 years ago by a free African American family.

Dennis, a member of the original family’s seventh- and eighth-generation descendants who now reside in the greater Philadelphia area and southern New Jersey, announced its conservation news.

“The barn house will undergo a 21st-century transformation into a living museum,” Dennis said.

This goal has now been reached. In March, at Christ Church in Philadelphia where Washington, Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross and the Continental Congress worshiped, the National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman Jon Parrish Peede, announced that the Dennis Farm Charitable Trust has been awarded a $400,000 NEH matching grant to restore the barn house and rebuild it as a museum.”

The 153-acre farm is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its 19th-century artifacts are featured in the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. The land trust received the Chairman’s Award from the NEH in 2015 and has been cited as “a treasure for the Keystone State” by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.