Utah Heritage Foundation

Top Secret:  For Your Eyes Only

A Tour of Historic Wendover Airbase

Date:               August 27, 2011

Time:               10:00 am – 2pm (approximately 4 hours)

Location:        Wendover Airport, 345 Airport Apron, Wendover, Utah

For the past twelve years, Save America’s Treasures has been one of the country’s most important and effective historic preservation efforts, bringing hundreds of millions of dollars for restoration to nationally significant historic sites and special collections in all parts of the U.S.  The National Trust is proud of our role in establishing SAT and our subsequent work with three administrations.  We have been pleased to serve as the program’s principal private partner since its inception.   SAT is a program that has demonstrated its value many times over, as a generator of economic activity and as a symbol of our country’s commitment to ensuring that future generations understand the foundations on which our institutions and freedoms rest.

In the current difficult fiscal environment we face as a country, the federal SAT program was not included in the Administration’s FY11 budget request.  Despite strong and consistent support from preservationists, local government officials, historic site administrators, and many others, Congress is not reinstating any programs that the Administration did not include in its 2011 budget.  Likewise, SAT was not a part of the Administration’s FY12 budget request.  At the National Trust, we have had extensive conversations with Congressional leadership on the future of the program.  While many on the Hill remain supportive of the program, given the political landscape and the budget process now in place, it is clear that Congress will not restore the program’s funding in 2012.

With this conclusion, we have made the reluctant decision to close the Save America’s Treasures office at the National Trust.  SAT at the National Trust has been devoted to assisting sites with applications for the SAT program and helping successful applicants raise the required match. It has worked extensively and creatively with the country’s premier historic places and collections to raise public awareness and shine a bright spotlight on the importance of our cultural resources and the need for their conscientious stewardship. Among the more than 1,200 prestigious projects in which SAT at the Trust has played a critical role are: the restoration of the Star Spangled Banner, San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers, Martin Luther King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the Acoma Pueblo. Other beneficiaries have been the homes of such literary icons as Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, Louisa May Alcott and Laura Ingalls Wilder. It also is responsible for supporting the restoration of the last architectural model of the World Trade Center and the related exhibits and interpretation. In addition to the model, when the National Memorial Museum at Ground Zero opens on Sept. 11, 2012, the Last Column – the last structural element removed from the site that contains signatures and graffiti from the families, workers and public officials – will have a prominent place thanks to support from SAT.

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.

Does it seem like a long time since the city bought the Fisher Mansion and opened it up for a tour?  It hasn’t been idle time where nothing’s been happening.  The long awaited historic structures report has been completed by CRSA, providing much needed information to future users about what may be necessary to bring the mansion up to building and seismic code, city LEED compliance, and return it to its historic glory.

As one of the handful of fabulous residential structures designed by Utah architect and German native Richard K.A. Kletting, the 1893 home to Albert Fisher served as his base of operation near what would become one of the largest breweries in the state until it sold to Anheiser-Busch.  The mansion was passed on from the family to the Catholic Diocese and operated as its last us as the St. Mary’s Home for Men.  The Fisher Mansion remained surprisingly intact since the family’s departure in 1944, yet suffered from a lack of maintenance and severe weather deterioration.

Still, the opportunity exists to rehabilitate a signature landmark of Salt Lake City.  The question now is – for what purpose?  A Request for Proposals is currently being prepared and will soon be on the street seeking interest.

In th