Coltrane Home gets $1M grant

The John and Alice Coltrane Home was awarded a $1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the preservation of the Dix Hills home, enhance organizational capacity and expand programmatic offerings.

The multi-year grant will be used to support rehabilitation of the home where the Coltranes lived in the 1960s and where they created some of their most treasured music. The grant will also go towards hiring a full-time executive director to lead the project.

“On behalf of The John and Alice Coltrane Home, I extend our thanks and appreciation to the Mellon Foundation for this tremendous vote of confidence,” Ravi Coltrane, the group’s chairman, said in a written statement. “Our project brings people closer to the Coltrane legacy; expanding understanding and inspiration and this funding will play an integral role in moving the project forward.”

The next phase of the renovation will include restoration of the home’s brick masonry facade, structural upgrades, and rehabilitation of stoops, patios, windows, and doors as well as the reintroduction of utilities. Renovation of the home will also be funded in part by a $172,750 matching grant through the New York State Environmental Protection Fund that was secured in 2016.

After a worldwide grass-roots effort, the Coltrane home was saved from imminent demolition when it was designated as a local Historic Landmark by the Huntington Town Board in 2004. The home was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. The National Trust for Historic Preservation designated the home as a National Treasure in 2018 and later awarded the home a grant from the Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

For more information and to make a donation visit: www.thecoltranehome.org