Utah Heritage Foundation

SAVE THE DATE

August 11, 2011

Putting Your Main Street on the Map, regional preservation workshop - Panguitch

UHF members, trustees, and staff will be headed to Cedar City and beyond this year to experience preservation in Iron County on our 2011 Road Trip on Saturday, June 25.  We hope you'll consider joining us for this one-of-a-kind, behind-the-scenes guided tour of some of the renowned and lesser known historic sites.  We've got a full day lined up along with some fun surprises and special guests.

It's also a BIG weekend in "Festival City USA" (Cedar City's moniker) with the opening of the Utah Shakespeare Festival on Friday, June 24, and a weekend-long music festival, Groovefest. 

So if you're a fan of live music, live theater, and preservation, this trip is for you.  "To be or not to be" on our Road Trip?  That is the question.  If you want to be, check out the full line-up on our website and register today.  For the first time, we are offering a children's rate so we hope you'll make it a family outing!

Superlatives and smiles abounded at the St. George Historic Homes Tour the afternoon of Saturday, January 15, 2011.  Preservation Commissioner Lynne Cobb pronounced the event “Wildly Successful,” after hosting an estimated 500+ guests at the National Register-listed William F. Butler House.

UHF Field Rep Susan Crook reported 336 guests signed in at the Arthur Miles House where she served as host, but the actual count was probably over 700.  St. George Live! actor Durrant McArthur, in period costume as his pioneer forbear Daniel McArthur, greets a guest in the parlor of the Miles House during the tour (left). 

In addition to St. George Live! actors, tour guides included preservation commissioners and staff, and Washington County Historical Society board members.  The volunteers piled into St. George Live! buses for a preview tour Friday afternoon, seen below at Green Gate Village near Judd’s Store, which has been in continuous operation for 100 years.  The iconic St. George Tabernacle is in the background.  The St. George Historic Homes Tour was one of the kick-off events for the City’s sesquicentennial celebration.

Cedar City started implementing a 5-year downtown revitalization strategy in 1996.  Fourteen years later, stakeholders revisited and updated that plan with the help of the consulting team Hyett-Palma who did the original study through the National League of Cities “America Downtown” program.

Doyle Hyett and Dolores Palma returned to Cedar City the first week of November 2010 to hold a new round of scoping meetings.  The kickoff for the general public on Monday, November 1^st brought out a crowd of about 120 people despite competing with other community events, the final game of the World Series and Monday Night Football.  Utah Heritage Foundation was represented at the meetings by Central and Southern Utah Field Representative Susan Crook, who sits on the board of the Cedar City Downtown Retail Alliance to advise on historic preservation.

Once threatened with dwindling population, New Harmony is now dealing with development.  Not so much within the town – which retains its original street layout, including one entire block surrounded by paved streets – but ranchettes in Harmony Valley and a wind farm proposed for a nearby hillside on public land.  The 2000 census showed the town’s population as 191, not counting cats, dogs and horses.  Okay, it’s a small town!  But one that’s very proud of its heritage.

 New Harmony Heritage, founded 145 years after its settlement, is making plans for the town’s sesquicentennial in 2012.  Some, in and out of town, would and do argue that there’s not much left of New Harmony’s heritage to showcase.  Those who beg to differ are looking for ways and means to display artifacts like bricks made by John D. Lee at his farm and brickworks near the southwest edge of town.  One idea is to actually sell most of those bricks to help raise money for a gathering place, preferably a historic house or barn, big enough to hold residents and visitors without having to petition to use the recreation hall at the LDS ward house or having to pull the emergency vehicles out of the firehouse/ town hall as was done for this year’s Founders Day dinner because the wind kicked up (above, right).

Tuesday, August 10^th is the last day you can register for the guided tour in Wayne County with UHF.

The trip is on Saturday, August 14 from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
You won’t want to miss our annual member’s trip with the Board of Trustees as guests from the region and UHF Central and Southern Utah Field Rep Susan Crook join us to provide insight to significant places throughout the county.

Plus it’s one of the only chances you’ll be able to go behind-the-scenes at Fish Lake Lodge and receive a limited edition print copy of the Fish Lake history.

You

Panguitch folks have a new thing to be excited about.  Mark and Heather Childs from Las Vegas have bought the old Gem Theater. 

Through the Partners in the Field initiative for Central and Southern Utah, UHF staff is providing on-site technical assistance for historic research, rehabilitation, and business planning for the Gem Theatre.

We locals have a rare chance to bask in their enthusiasm.  Anytime one can find the real thing, real enthusiasm, it is like finding a gold mine.  It is someplace to visit and visit and take away riches, this time for the spirit.  This ambitious young couple and their two boys (in photo at left) plan to open an old-fashioned ice cream parlor. 

Full funding for the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) was at the top of the agenda at National Historic Preservation Advocacy Week, with a slant toward job creation and energy efficiency.  Utah Heritage Foundation (UHF) is among the 171 members of the nationwide Coalition for Full Permanent Funding of the Historic Preservation Fund.

My service area as UHF’s Central and Southern Utah Field Representative covers parts of all three Utah Congressional districts, and I represent the entire state as Utah’s only current Preservation Action board member.  Appointments with our three congressmen (below with, l. to r., Fred Ferguson and Jason Chaffetz) and both senators gave me the chance to tell them about preservation success stories back home and ask them to help change the policy that allows Congress to appropriate only one-third to one-half of the $150 million authorized annually for the HPF.

Kick-off Reception for Preservation in Dixie

Wednesday, December 9

For several decades now, St. George City has been the steward and planner for a historic preservation revival in Utah’s Dixie.  The centerpiece of which is the town square where the historic Woodward School, Tabernacle, and original Dixie College building (seen at left) all stand.  All in deep red sandstone, these buildings reflect the burnished color of the surrounding hills, but tell a richer story, one of pioneer ancestry, faith, dedication, and hard work.

But also a story of sound principles of planning and architecture which are still followed today in the pioneer center of St. George.  The historic building of the town square are now joined by fountains, open space, and the city’s new public library which is built to design specifications that allow it to fit into the town square, yet not replicate the historic buildings.  Main Street (seen at bottom right), the Green Gate Village B&B, Ancestor Square, and the Opera House complex are but a few of the nearby historic buildings that have all been rehabilitated.

Historic preservation has been the centerpiece of St. George’s planning efforts and house some of most interesting galleries, businesses, events, and accommodations.  Utah Heritage Foundation is pleased to support St. George city and the numerous organizations and owners who invest in rehabilitation.  Susan Crook, Central and Southern Utah Field Rep for Utah Heritage Foundation, is available to assist with historic preservation projects throughout the region by contacting her at 435.773.5336 or susan@utahheritagefoundation.org.

S