CHESTERVILLE — The Chesterville Center Union Meeting House Inc. board of directors has recently received a grant for $10,000 to improve the building.

The money is from the Davis Family Foundation, a private philanthropic fund based in Yarmouth.

“We are thrilled to be a beneficiary of the generosity of the Davis Family Foundation,” board President Carolyn Drugge said. “This grant allows us to go forward with our dream of engaging the Chesterville community in creative events at this historic building.”

The Chesterville Center Union Meeting House was built and opened in 1851, following the relocation of the town’s first meeting house from the center to the north end of town. Serving as a nondenominational place of worship for many decades, the building later deteriorated and was refurbished.

The building is at the intersection of Zion Hill Road and Burrough Road. It is the only historic, nonresidential structure in the center of town.

The nonprofit board hopes to use it for community events, including those that are musical, artistic, cultural, spiritual, historic and/or ceremonial in nature.

Drugge said the board has been frustrated at not being able to pay for a restroom and a wheelchair ramp so the building can be used to generate income for improvements.

“This grant, along with volunteer labor offered by talented local supporters, will help us break this vicious circle and make the building comfortable much more rapidly,” she said.

The $10,000 grant is less than requested because of the number of applications received by the Davis Family Foundation.

In order to install heating and a few other necessities, the board will pursue more funds after this first set of projects.

For further information about the Chesterville Center Union Meeting House and the plans for its future, contact Drugge at 778-3767.