Margot Gayle Fund for
Preservation of Victorian Heritage
The Margot Gayle Fund for the Preservation of Victorian Heritage was established in 2003 to honor Margot Gayle (1908-2008), an eminent preservationist who was one of the founders of the Victorian Society in America. The Victorian Society New York (officially known as the New York Metropolitan Chapter of the Victorian Society in America) regularly awards monetary grants from this fund to projects related to the preservation, conservation, and/or interpretation of material culture in the New York metropolitan area from c. 1837 to 1919. Projects may focus on any aspect of material culture from this period, including but not limited to, architecture, landscape design, fine and decorative arts or other aspects of visual culture, technology, and industry.
Deadline: Monday, March 18th, 2024 for May 2024 award(s)
Download Margot Gayle Grant Application
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Founder Margot Gayle’s commitment continues through the generosity of donors who make our Chapter’s grant program viable.
The fund enables the Metropolitan Chapter to make monetary grants for projects for preservation or conservation of Victorian material culture in the New York Metropolitan area.
In addition to her lifelong involvement with VSA and VSNY advocacy efforts, Margot Gayle founded the Friends of Cast Iron Architecture and is credited with raising public awareness nationwide of the significance of iron-fronted buildings of the Victorian era. Her New York preservation efforts extended from the 1960s when she successfully campaigned to save the Jefferson Market Courthouse in Greenwich Village to a drive in the 1990s to restore the Yorkville sidewalk clock on Third Avenue near 85th Street.
The first project underwritten by the fund was a study of cast-iron-fronted buildings in New York City that have not been officially designated as landmarks. Commissioned by the Chapter in 2004 and completed by architectural historian Andrew S. Dolkart in 2006, the survey documents 56 undesignated cast-iron-fronted buildings in Manhattan, distributed geographically from Downtown to West 125th Street in Harlem, as well as 11 buildings in northern Brooklyn, between Downtown and Williamsburg. The examples cover 50 years, spanning nearly the entire history of the use of cast iron as a building material. The report can be accessed from an online database at: vicsocny.org/castironnyc/
Make a secure donation to the Margot Gayle Fund or Download a printable MGF Donation Form and send it with your check, payable to Metropolitan Chapter VSA to:
Margot Gayle Fund for Preservation of Victorian Heritage
Metropolitan Chapter of Victorian Society in America
c/o Village Alliance
8 East 8th Street
New York, NY 10003