The Flannery O’Connor farm property of Andalusia and the former downtown tea room Brown-Stetson-Sanford House are two of among five sites in the Central Georgia area that have been awarded grant money for restoration or preservation purposes.

The announcement was made via press release Wednesday.

The grants, which were awarded in the amount of $5,000 for each site, were awarded by the Milledgeville Junior Board for Historic Preservation, a group of high school students that awards grants annually to preservation projects and historical sites in the Middle Georgia area.

This year the 13-member board awarded more than $31,000 to preservation projects in Milledgeville and surrounding communities.

Grants awarded for 2009 included $5,000 to Andalusia in Milledgeville for restoration work on the farm’s milk shed; $10,434.50 to Old City Cemetery/Washington County Historic Society in Sandersville for tomb repairs; $6,240 to Gordon: A New Beginning in Gordon for grave restoration in the Gordon City Cemetery; $5,000 to Georgia’s Old Capital Museum in Milledgeville for plaster restoration in the Brown-Stetson-Sanford House and $4,250 to Old School Museum in Eatonton for exhibition cases and document preservation.

Amy Wright is the director of Georgia’s Old Capital Museum, which along with the Brown-Stetson-Sanford House falls under the direction of Georgia’s Old Capital Museum Society.

Wright’s father, John Johnson, helped to move the house from the downtown area to its current site on Hancock Street more than 43 years ago after the house faced destruction in the wake of a changing downtown business climate.

Wright is also a board member with the Society and has kept close ties to both the museum and the house during her time associated with the board.

“We are thrilled. This will allow us to begin work on removing damaged plaster and with the restoration. It’s in the ceiling upstairs,” Wright explained. “There are some areas around the other rooms, but the master bedroom has the most damage.”

The Milledgeville Junior Board for Historic Preservation was established in October 2006 through a $43,000 grant from the Watson-Brown Foundation for operations and funding allocated to fund preservation projects selected and approved by the board.

The board meets once a month during the school year from August through May.

Members of this year’s board are John Felt of Eatonton, Katherine Lacksen and Jacob Pounds, both of Sparta; Justin Shiver of Gray; Trey Veal of Warthen; and Christina Azahar, Mitch Beall, Natali Gavanarove, Clara Gilbert, Megan Gillis, Kerry McGill, Caitlin McNeill and Kyle Walker, all of Milledgeville.

“I am especially proud of this year’s board of very motivated and gifted students who facilitated these grants,” Matt Davis, coordinator of the Junior Board project and curator at The Old Governor’s Mansion, said. “I’m quite proud of the professionalism and dedication that was shown.”

This is not the first time Andalusia has benefited from grants from the board. In 2007, the board awarded Andalusia $8,500 to restore the pump house on the property.

That same year the board awarded $5,000 to the Gordon Cemetery to restore grave markers and $3,500 to the Jones county Educational Museum to build exhibits.