diff --git a/projects/samskivert/src/java/com/samskivert/velocity/Application.java b/projects/samskivert/src/java/com/samskivert/velocity/Application.java
index 02f043c5..1713f271 100644
--- a/projects/samskivert/src/java/com/samskivert/velocity/Application.java
+++ b/projects/samskivert/src/java/com/samskivert/velocity/Application.java
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@
 
 package com.samskivert.velocity;
 
+import java.util.Properties;
+
 import javax.servlet.ServletConfig;
 import javax.servlet.ServletContext;
 
@@ -125,6 +127,14 @@ public class Application
         didInit(config);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Called prior to initializing Velocity to allow the application to
+     * specify custom configuration properties.
+     */
+    protected void configureVelocity (ServletConfig config, Properties props)
+    {
+    }
+
     /**
      * Looks up an initialization parameter for this application. The
      * default implementation retrieves the value from the servlet config,
diff --git a/projects/samskivert/src/java/com/samskivert/velocity/DispatcherServlet.java b/projects/samskivert/src/java/com/samskivert/velocity/DispatcherServlet.java
index 151c6edd..5bd4af9c 100644
--- a/projects/samskivert/src/java/com/samskivert/velocity/DispatcherServlet.java
+++ b/projects/samskivert/src/java/com/samskivert/velocity/DispatcherServlet.java
@@ -243,6 +243,9 @@ public class DispatcherServlet extends VelocityServlet
         props.setProperty(RuntimeSingleton.RUNTIME_LOG_LOGSYSTEM_CLASS,
                           ServletContextLogger.class.getName());
 
+        // let the application set up other properties
+        _app.configureVelocity(config, props);
+
         // now return our augmented properties
         return props;
     }