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The Eldorado Ballroom, one of the buildings owned and being restored by Project Row Houses.

Buffalo Soldiers National Museum leadership, members of different consulates in Houston and reenactors gather around a new WW1 Centennial Memorial to African-American memorial on its inauguration day in 2018

Two Houston noted landmarks - Eldorado Ballroom and Buffalo Soldiers National Museum - are among 33 sites across the nation to receive $3 million in grants dedicated to preserving Black culture. The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund made the announcement Thursday.

The fund, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is the largest national source dedicated to preserving African American historic sites. Since its inception in 2017, it has funded 160 places, an investment totaling more than $12 million.

The Eldorado Ballroom, 2310 Elgin, is undergoing a $9.7 million renovation and was once one of the nation's most acclaimed venues for live music by artists such as B.B King, Ray Charles and Ella Fitzgerald. It was gifted to Project Row Houses in 1999.  Funding for this project will repair and restore the site’s ground- and second-floor windows.

Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, 3816 Caroline, is located in the 1925 Houston Light Guard Armory building. It's home to one of the largest private collections of African American military artifacts. Funding will help with repairs to the building’s wall, steel base and exterior brick masonry to help protect its collections.

Joy Sewing is the Chronicle's culture columnist, focusing on Houston culture, families, social justice and race. The Houston native is the author of "Ava and the Prince: The Adventures of Two Rescue Pups," a children's book about her own rescue boxer dogs. Joy also is the founder of Year Of Joy, a nonprofit organization, to spread joy to children from underserved communities. In 2020, she was one of five "unsung Houston heroes" featured in the "Monuments by Craig Walsh" exhibit at Discovery Green Park in downtown Houston.  A former competitive ice skater, Joy became Houston's first African American figure skating coach while in college. She currently serves as vice president of the Houston Association of Black Journalists and is an adjunct journalism professor at University of Houston. She also is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Before the world knew Brittney Griner as the WNBA star at the center of an international scandal, Houston knew her as a local basketball phenom.