Contact: Gary Heurich 202/365-3131
Mary Anne Hoffman 703/862-6706

BREWMASTER'S CASTLE IS NAMED IN MAYOR'S BUDGET
Councilmember Jack Evans' Request That the Mayor Include $500,000 for The Brewmaster's Castle in His FY'07 Budget Hits the Mark

WASHINGTON, DC, March 24 - Washington's landmark Brewmaster's Castle has been included in the Mayor's budget submission for FY '07 for a $500,000 line item to help save what is one of Washington's most important local historic sites.

Recognizing the importance of The Brewmaster's Castle and aware of the community's strong desire to save it, Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans sought the line item to help save the historic site located in his Ward, and hundreds of citizens emailed and wrote the Mayor and City Council in support of Evans' request.

The announcement was made today by Gary F. Heurich, a representative of Friends of The Castle, an independent citizens' organization formed on January 28 to help rescue the 19th century mansion from possible foreclosure and sale.

"We are so grateful for the Mayor's, Councilmember Evans', and the community's support," said Heurich. "Now we have to keep pushing hard to meet our next goal of raising $1,750,000 by the end of the year so that The Castle will never again be at risk of being lost to the public. The city's funding would be about 30% of this goal and give us a big leg up in approaching potential donors."

"We need the community to redouble its efforts and send new emails and letters to the Mayor and Council thanking them for the line item and for their support, and urging them to pass the budget with this line item intact," Heurich added.

In the past 2 months, the Friends of the Castle helped secure almost $105,000 in donations from over 2,000 people, conducted tours and fundraisers attended by over 1,700 people, and worked with Councilmember Evans and the community to secure the budget line item. Because of these efforts and those of the Heurich House Foundation to secure refinancing, which appears imminent, The Brewmaster's Castle will remain open to the public.

The Friends warned in late January that the New Hampshire Avenue home of German brewer Christian Heurich could be sold and lost to public use unless $250,000 could be raised by Feb. 15 to pay off mortgage interest. The strong community response - donations of more than $70,000 in the first 17 days -- led the cooperative lender to extend the deadline for raising the balance to March 15. Now Castle supporters are focused on raising $1, 750,000 by year's end to reduce interest costs to the point that the Castle can be self-sustaining.

More information about the Brewmaster’s Castle can be found at www.brewmasterscastle.com

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