Baldwin Pays Off Ashawagh Mortgage

    A loan taken out several years ago to pay for repairs and renovations to Ashawagh Hall, a Springs community building, has been paid off thanks to a $60,000 donation from the Alec Baldwin Foundation and Capital One Bank.

    Last month Mr. Baldwin called Loring Bolger, the secretary of the Springs Improvement Society, which owns the building, to say he’d like to help. Rather than make a general donation to the nonprofit group, which exists to oversee Ashawagh Hall, he suggested donating directly toward the building. The donation will relieve the S.I.S. from its monthly $1,400 loan payments.

    “With no monthly loan payments, thanks to the Baldwin Foundation’s fabulous gift, the Springs Improvement Society can now put money aside for a much-needed new roof and cupola,” Ms. Bolger said in an e-mail on Tuesday. “Sitting on a green in the heart of historic Springs, Ashawagh Hall serves as an art gallery, a community house, and gathering spot for everyone in the community,” she wrote.

   Mr. Baldwin had earmarked the money he makes as a spokesman for Capital One’s credit card ad campaign for donations benefiting arts and cultural organizations. His foundation gave grants of $250,000 each to Guild Hall in East Hampton, to the East Hampton Library for its new children’s wing, and to the Hamptons International Film Festival, and continued its gifts to other East End organizations with another round of awards in May and June.

    Besides Ashawagh Hall, the recipients include the Group for the East End, with two recent donations of $5,000 each, the Amagansett Village Improvement Society, which was given $1,000, and the East Hampton Day Care Learning Center, which received $2,500 in May.

    As a board member of the center, Mr. Baldwin had also given the organization a $250,000 grant.