Fraternity-Testvériség, 1993 (71. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)

1993-07-01 / 3. szám

FRATERNITY

Page 17

HUNGARIAN HERITAGE CENTER

Pays Off Mortgage

The Hungarian Heritage Center of the American Hungarian Foundation in New Brunswick, NJ, lifted itself out of debt and met the deadline of September 15, 1993, for paying off the mortgage balance. It paid back the last $580,000 on the $1.4 million loan to the First Fidelity Bank, N.A., New Jersey. The Foundation did this with significant help from many donors, the City of New Brunswick, a major fraternal organization and the estate of a prominent New Brunswick attorney.

The American Hungarian Foundation will continue with its $1.2 million fund-raising goal, so that it can add staff and expand its program at the Hungarian Heritage Center/museum, library and archives center, said foundation president August J. Molnár.

“This means we’ve got a success on which to build further,” Molnár said of the effort by which the organization made the final payment to Leslie E. Goodman, president and chief executive officer of First Fidelity Bank. The Newark-based bank forgave $500,000 of the initial $1.4 million loan and set a deadline of September 15, 1993, for repayment of the $580,000 balance. The foundation made monthly payments of $30,000 over a period of nine months under the agreement reached last December with the bank.

“We felt that this was a situation that was entitled to this kind of commitment from the bank,” Goodman said, following a brief meeting at the foundation’s center. “We’re just pleased that this works out!”

The foundation opened the $2.5 million museum,

library and archives center in 1989. It is the only research center of its kind in the nation.

Also coming to the aid of the center was the city government, which contributed $100,000 in federal funds from the Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG), and the estate of longtime attorney Arthur Reich, which established a $100,000 “challenge grant” that generated matching funds from other donors. The lobby of the heritage center is to be named in honor of Reich, a Hungarian immigrant and Rutgers Law School alumnus, who died three years ago, and his late wife, Elizabeth.

“I can think of no more worthy project than to help the heritage center and this city,” said New Brunswick attorney Donald Sheil, executor of the Reich estate.

Mayor James Cahill explained that the UDAG funds are first awarded to developers as a loan from the federal government and when it is repaid, the city then uses it for other projects. He described the Hungarian community of New Brunswick as a “cornerstone” of the city over its 300-year history. Mayor Cahill, who is of Hungarian ancestry, said the Hungarian Heritage Center acts as an anchor to the community where six Hungarian churches with five other Hungarian organizations, a pastry shop, a meat market, and a Hungarian restaurant still thrive in the Somerset Street area. New Brunswick styles itself as a cultural center of 1.7 Hungarian-Americans, 40 percent of whom live within a 100 mile radius of New Brunswick.

“This building will be here forever,” Cahill said of the 18,000-square foot, two-story center, once a needle factory staffed largely by Hungarian workers.

Another major contributor to the foundation was the Pittsburgh-based William Penn Association, which donated $72,000 for this mortgage repayment effort.

The Foundation also tapped $200,000 of its own funds, including a $100,000 gift from former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Nicholas M. Salgo. Other gifts and bequests, Molnár said, have gone toward meeting the nine monthly payments totaling $270,000.