Kump Education Center Board and Elkins City Council have approved new proposals to improve the property and provide programing in the next year.

If the grant application process goes well, you will see a new pavilion, ADA hand rails on porches, and roof repairs at KEC.

We have applied for a grant under the American Recovery Plan Act to provide space for students to meet outdoors. We will build a 12 X 12 pavilion as a COVID-free outdoor learning space between the City Tree Nursery (old garden) and the south lawn.

This covered space will keep the classroom dry for summer school students in the Randolph County SOLE program, YMCA Summer Science, and others. It will provide dry picnic tables for tourists and local families and cover bands and performers who offer entertainment during outdoor events on the south lawn.

We have asked for funding through the Appalachian National Forest Heritage Area program to increase tourism by making local sites more accessible.

We plan to add steel hand rails along steps at the formal front entrance and in the two stairwells under the side portico as well as around the side porch deck which stands 3 to 7 feet off the ground.

The rail will make young and old visitors much safer when they walk on the steps and/or stand on the porch deck. It will also help stop wheel chairs from rolling off the side porch when we add a wheel chair lift beside the porch to give ADA access to our historic spaces. Visitors at ESGC Christmas open house events saw how beautiful the historic rooms in the Kump home are at this time.

We are seeking support from Preservation Alliance of West Virginia for roof repair and reroute water in gutters on the back of the building. The roof over the second floor “Sleeping Porch” leaks because water does not drain properly and ice builds up in the downspouts.

Damage to plaster and woodwork continues inside. We plan to patch and repaint the metal roof and create more effective drainage from the shallow gutters to a newly added downspout, We hope these changes will make the large room in the back of the house available for classes and conferences.

The building improvements have been needed for years, but we could not plan them during the most dangerous days of the COVID-19 crisis. Nevertheless, we had a small number of workers inside during the winters of 2019-2021 plastering and painting after the disruptive — but very necessary electrical project of 2018.

Our restoration and preservation efforts must be approved and have often been partially funded by the West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office.

Now we are hoping to work with the West Virginia Humanities Council to provide an exhibit of two early 20th Century wedding dresses for our “Something Old, Something New” event June 25-26.