BOONTON — The Town of Boonton has been awarded an eighteen thousand five hundred sixty dollar grant to support ongoing preservation work on the New Jersey Merci Train boxcar, as part of nearly five million dollars in historic preservation grants approved by the Morris County Board of County Commissioners.
The grant is among thirty-five projects across twenty municipalities approved for funding from the county’s Preservation Trust Fund, following a recommendation last month by the Morris County Historic Preservation Trust Fund Review Board.
The Merci Train boxcar is a rare surviving example of a late nineteenth-century French “forty and eight” military railcar, originally built to transport either forty soldiers or eight horses. It is one of forty-nine such railcars distributed throughout the United States in 1949 as part of a post-World War II diplomatic gift from France, recognizing American assistance through the Friendship Train.
The boxcar requires steel bracing and other preservation work, and the grant will support completion of construction documents for both interior and exterior preservation efforts. The applicant for the grant is the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey, which is restoring the boxcar at its Boonton yard.
“Morris County has now awarded more than sixty-one million dollars from our Preservation Trust Fund to restore and preserve one hundred forty-two historic sites since 2003, when voters overwhelmingly supported dedicating a fund to protect our important historical resources,” said Commissioner Thomas J. Mastrangelo, liaison to the Office of Planning and Preservation. “We thank the members of the Preservation Trust Fund Review Board and our Office of Planning and Preservation staff for their hard work in selecting the most worthy projects for support and providing this important benefit to county residents.”
“As Morris County celebrates the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of our nation’s independence this year, we are reminded of the importance of preserving our heritage, not only because of Morris County’s deep roots in the American Revolution, but also because of the local people and places that played significant roles in our great nation’s evolution throughout history,” he added.
Since its inception, the county’s Historic Preservation Trust Fund program has helped protect Morris County’s historic resources while creating opportunities for heritage tourism, supporting economic development, and increasing public awareness of the county’s rich historic character.
