GT Dream Center receives funding to make big community impact
WEST POINT Miss. (WCBI) – The Golden Triangle Dream Center is one of eight sites selected for this year’s Conserving Black Modernism Program. It gives funds to save buildings and sites that represent black culture.
Golden Triangle Dream Center Executive Director Cole Bryan said he plans to use the money to turn Mary Holmes College into something useful for those who need a place to live.
“We live by our motto to find a need and fill it. This fills two needs. One, it gives people an affordable place to live, and two, it transforms a building that is deteriorating, and saves it from being demolished,” said Bryan.
The Mary Holmes College Dorms are expected to house up to 90 families.
Bryan said the project has been in the works for a while.
“We started working on this in 2019, Roger Pryor is an architect and he really introduced me to this project. That was followed by us hiring an architecture historian named Alfred Willis to help us have this property listed on the National Registry of Historic Places,” said Bryan.
The action fund is the largest funding resource in the United States, and it has more than 140 million dollars to offer.
Bryan says it’s special knowing a building in a small town was chosen over bigger cities.
“It is unbelievable because we do not know how special this building is. Some people do, but not everybody does. It might be special for many different reasons. There are people all over this country that are interested in this building,” said Bryan.
Bryan also knows not everyone agrees with affordable housing in their neighborhoods, and he has a message for those people.
“I would say have a heart, there are people that are struggling and are not as fortunate as we are. If this was a need, we would not be trying to do it, so just have a heart,” said Bryan.
The planning project for the affordable housing will take about 12 months, and the earliest that the plan could be completed is by 2027.
