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Higher Ground Inter-Cultural & Heritage Association 

Receives Grant from Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation

The Higher Ground Inter-Cultural & Heritage Assoc., is the recent awardee of an Organizational Capacity Building Grant, [OCB], from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation in fall of 2020. The project, currently in progress, represents continued preservation of the Bethel Christian Ave., Laurel Hill Historic District, [BCALH]. The program is expected to run until December 2021.

The Higher Ground Inter-Cultural & Heritage Assoc., (hereinafter, Higher Ground) was formed in 2004, and a NY State registered non-profit since 2006. The organization has sought to preserve the culture, indigenous inhabitants, and historic inventory of the Native and Afro-American community that began with land deeded by the Town of Brookhaven in 1815 for what is known as the Laurel Hill Cemetery. Today, the community that developed thereafter is known as the BCALH Historic District.

Eato House circa 1980s

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Eato House, ca. 2017.

The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation grant has assigned a team of consultants to support the OCB project. Members of the Eato House Restoration Committee will be trained to pursue and manage historic preservation activities; manage projects, and to adequately fulfill standard requirements for State registered non-profits. The grant will introduce the Higher Ground organization to promotional activities, marketing strategies, and to high technology processing. Participation in the OCB project will increase the competency of Higher Ground to protect structures, documented history, environmental history; to preserve artwork, oral history, and archaeological documentation.

The study and documentation of New York State history has gained huge support from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation since its inception in 1987, and in particular, Suffolk County history. Less known, but equally successful, are the efforts of the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation to identify, and engage with small, relatively hidden areas of valuable, Native, and Afro-American history being lost in minority communities where small preservation organizations labor to survive. Moreover, the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation continued its trend