The Mathews County Historical Society has been awarded three National Park Service grants totaling $181,000 by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, which administers the grants.

A grant for $67,000 will help fund archaeological projects, while a grant for $79,000 will support an architectural survey of county buildings and possible historic districts, said MCHS spokesman Forrest Morgan. A grant for $35,000 will help pay to build a dock at New Point Comfort Lighthouse to allow contractors to access the lighthouse and make repairs.

The archaeological and architectural grants will expand and build on projects conducted last year during the historical society’s “Year of Finding History in Mathews County,” said Morgan. A cost share architectural survey partly funded by the county identified and registered 220 historical structures in Mathews in 2014, 15 of which were identified as eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. He said that contractors f...