The Croydon School District is excited to announce it has been awarded a $128,000 grant from the New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (LCHIP) to help fund renovations to Croydon Village School that will keep Little Red in service as a historic one-room schoolhouse. The district will be required to match each dollar of the grant, which is already covered by the $353,000 bond authorized at the March 2025 District Meeting. Effectively, this reduces the cost to Croydon taxpayers by $128,000.
Croydon was one of 31 land conservation and historic preservation projects across the state selected for awards. In total, the rehabilitation of 21 historic buildings will be supported and 3,000 acres of working forest, wetlands, and ecologically significant land will be preserved.
School Board Chair Aaron McKeon and Senior Education Officer Sue Blair joined Governor Kelly Ayotte and LCHIP to accept the award on Croydon’s behalf. State Rep. Hope Daemon (D-District 8) was also in attendance.
This grant comes in addition to the recently earmarked Congressional appropriation of $1.17 million. The LCHIP grant will be used towards specific items necessary for maintaining the historic building, which was recently added to the NH Register of Historic Places. Renovations will include repointing the brickwork, refurbishing the belfry and front-entrance portico, and upgrading life safety systems. By contrast, the Congressional appropriation can also be used towards items not related to historic preservation such as updating the grounds, replacing aging equipment, and expanding the campus with additional space for instruction, administration, and storage.
LCHIP-supported renovations to Little Red are currently scheduled to begin in June of 2026, and we look forward to an exciting future for Croydon Village School!
You can read about the history of Little Red by clicking here.