The Mary C. Morrissey Olsson Historic Preservation Award was established in 2024 by the Franklin Historical Commission, in honor of former chairperson, Mary Olsson, who passed away in 2024, a tireless advocate for historic preservation, as a non-monetary award to recognize an individual or organization that has made an important contribution to preserving, protecting, or communicating the history of Franklin.
By vote of the Commission, the third such award is being bestowed on Old Colony Habitat for Humanity for its imaginative embrace of historic preservation and adaptive reuse and for shepherding a challenging project to completion, namely the circa 1856 Old South Congregational Meeting House. Donated to the town for use as a museum in the early 1970s, it served in that role until about 20 years ago and has since been vacant. A beautiful landmark was starting to succumb to the effects of time and climate and no one had succeeded in finding a way to properly preserve and reuse the structure.
"Habitat for Humanity found a way and we hope this will be an example to others of what can be done with historic structures with a little imagination and grit," said Historical Commission Chair Alan R. Earls.
The former church is now an affordable, single-family home that will be maintained under a state supervised Historical Preservation Restriction, that will maintain the familiar look of the landmark building, while providing a family with a safe and modern dwelling in which to live. The structure will remain an affordable home in perpetuity.
More information about Old Colony Habitat for Humanity is available at https://oldcolonyhabitat.org
