Utah Heritage Foundation

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.

The Hunter House restoration has been taken over by a SWATC team.  High school students enrolled in the Southwest Applied Technology College (SWATC) building construction class are repairing plaster, restoring a fireplace, and stripping and refinishing wood trim as part of the second phase of work on the historic home.  Other contractors began the restoration with repair of the foundation and re-roofing after the house was moved to the Frontier Homestead State Park Museum (formerly Iron Mission State Park) in 2005 to prevent its demolition.  Utah Heritage Foundation was instrumental in the advocacy process that led to arrangements for saving it.