LOCAL

Jewel Box Challenge to help restore Sullivan building

Bethany Bruner
Newark Advocate

NEWARK - A new fundraising challenge will help raise the money needed to continue the restoration of the historic Louis Sullivan Building in downtown Newark. 

The Jewel Box Challenge, as it has been dubbed by the Licking County Foundation, will aim to raise $1.5 million by June 30, 2020. 

Monetary gifts will be amplified by 50 cents to every dollar donated through a $750,000 challenge grant the Licking County Foundation received from the Jeffris Family Foundation, a family foundation focused on maintaining the architectural heritage of Midwestern small towns and cities. 

The Jeffris Family Foundation supports projects which strive for high preservation standards and display the history, culture and unique sense of place in small towns. 

In total, the campaign will raise $2.25 million to restore the Sullivan Building's facade and the rest of its exterior to what it would have looked like in 1915. This will include the intricate terra cotta work, art-glass windows and iridescent mosaics. 

The Louis Sullivan Building was built in 1914 and opened in 1915 as the Home Building Association Company and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. 

It was one of eight banks designed by Sullivan known as "jewel boxes." 

The building was donated to the Licking County Foundation in 2013 and planning for its restoration and eventual reuse began at that time. 

In 2016, work began on restoration of the building's basement, which stretches under the sidewalks on Third and West Main Streets, in conjunction with the downtown sewer projects. After that renovation was complete, work began on the first and second stories of the building.

Explore Licking County, the area's convention and visitors bureau, will move into the building when the interior restoration and renovation are complete, anticipated to occur in 2018. 

For more information on the Louis Sullivan Building, contact the Licking County Foundation at 740-349-3863. 

How to donate

Contributions can be made by making checks payable to the Jewel Box Challenge Fund and mailed to the Licking County Foundation at P.O. Box 4212, Newark, Ohio, 43058. Donations can also be made online at www.lcfoundation.org (click on Donate Now).

Donations are tax deductible.