THE LENNOX AND ADDINGTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
FOUNDATION TRUST
“Successful heritage preservation will always be a partnership between volunteers, individual home and business owners and government. The key driver for heritage preservation is a vision that heritage is about our quality of life.” Jane Foster, LAHS Member, 2013 Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award
The Lennox and Addington Historical Society Inc. under the leadership of President George Salsbury established an independent Trust to be known as The Lennox and Addington Historical Society Foundation Fund on June 22, 1984. The purpose was to establish an endowment for the future management and operations of the Allan Macpherson House, owned by the Historical Society since 1962, and to further the Society’s historical objectives of the County of Lennox and Addington.
The original and future trustees were appointed by the Executive Committee of The Lennox and Addington Historical Society (LAHS). Trustees would manage the Trust Fund by investing the assets, and the interest from the capital fund could be drawn upon for the operation of Macpherson House and for LAHS historical goals. From 1984 to 2007 $84,000 capital had been raised through the additional donor funds and the trustees financial acumen.
As the Historical Society approached its centennial year, the majority of the disbursed funds had gone to help preserve and protect Allan Macpherson House by support the operations budget. (See graph).
In the event Allan Macpherson House ceased to exist, the Trustees would maintain the Trust for the general purposes of The Lennox and Addington Historical Society. If the LAHS also ceased to exist the Fund would be paid or transferred to the appropriate body with the same objectives of the Trust.
In 2014, the ownership of the Allan Macpherson House was transferred to the County of Lennox and Addington, as it became financially not viable for LAHS to continue to operate it. At a March 3, 2018, Executive meeting the following motion was passed unanimously by the Executive members present:
“Whereas The Lennox and Addington Historical Society Foundation is working to conclude as a separate business entity, working to transfer the assets it manages via The Lennox and Adding Historical Society”.
At the LAHS 2018 Annual General Meeting the Trustees recommended to dissolve the LAHS Foundation Fund. The LAHS Foundation Fund assets of $102,663 were transferred to the LAHS accounts. The LAHS created a Donor Directed Fund with The Community Foundation for Lennox & Addington, with the capital to be held and managed in perpetual trust, with the yearly interest to be allocated to LAHS.