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Capital Campaign
Byrne-Reed House colorized by Matthew Fuller
The gracious century-old Byrne-Reed House lies hidden beneath a white stucco façade that dates from the early 1970s. Humanities Texas invites you to play a pivotal role in restoring the building to its original splendor.
In December 2007, the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded a $1 million challenge grant—NEH's largest single award in Texas—for the Byrne-Reed House restoration. The NEH grant requires Humanities Texas to raise $3 million to receive the full challenge grant amount.
Humanities Texas has already received several other generous grants for the Byrne-Reed House restoration: $75,000 from The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston; $150,000 from the Fleming Endowment of Houston; $100,000 from the T. L. L. Temple Foundation of Lufkin; $30,000 over three years from the Diane Graves Owen Foundation of Abilene; and, most recently, $5,000 from the Hoglund Foundation and $333,000 from the Still Water Foundation—the largest grant from a private foundation in the council's 35-year history. In addition, the Texas Historical Commission has awarded Humanities Texas a $25,000 Texas Preservation Trust Fund Grant.
These grants, along with earlier grants of $20,000 from the T. J. Brown and C. A. Lupton Foundation of Fort Worth; $10,000 from the Vick Family Foundation; $25,000 from the Mincberg Charitable Foundation; $15,000 from The William A. and Madeline Welder Smith Foundation of Houston; and $2,500 from the Inge Foundation of Granbury, have helped get the capital campaign off to a strong start.
We are immensely grateful to these organizations and to the many others who have pledged support for this project. The funds raised will underwrite each step of the restoration, from architectural research to the interior and exterior renovation. Every dollar will be an investment in nurturing an informed, educated citizenry and promoting the understanding and appreciation of the state’s varied cultures.
We hope to make online donations possible very soon. In the meantime, you can make donations over the phone (512.440.1991) or mail contributions to:
Byrne-Reed Restoration
Humanities Texas
1410 Rio Grande Street
Austin, TX 78701