As announced by the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, the Historic Wendover Airfield will receive a $450,000 federal grant from the Save America's Treasures program to begin rehabilitation work on the massive hangar building named for the Enola Gay airplane that was housed there in 1945.  A portion of the grant will be for re-roofing, as well as for siding and windows.  Due to federal funds being provided, all work must meet the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation.  Utah Heritage Foundation began discussions with Tooele County, owner of the Wendover Airport (Wendover historic airfield) in 2000 about the great significance of the building, use and reuse options, as well as potential options for funding rehabilitation.

 

In secret training missions, the 509^th Composite Group used the Wendover site in June 1945 before completing their August 6 assignment to fly their B-29 bomber to Hiroshima, Japan, and drop the first atomic bomb.  The building housed the Enola Gay for a brief period of time in confidence before flying to California and launching on the mission.  In addition, airmen that were training for the mission used the surrounding desert for target practice and other buildings for practice in loading and unloading large, sensitive materials before knowing that they were going to carry the atom bomb.

 

Much of the story of the Enola Gay's history in Utah can be seen at the Historic Wendover Airfield Museum.  The museum and the airfield is definitely a place worth seeing beyond the buffet!  Believe it or not, the Enola Gay Hangar also played a significant role in the movie Con Air (1997).  Look for it.

Visit Save America's Treasures for additional information on this year's grantees as well as the application process.

 

While visiting Wendover, Utah, you may want to also visit the Center for Land Use Interpretation.  The Center produces public exhibits on land use themes and issues for galleries and museums, and for exhibition in CLUI spaces in Los Angeles and elsewhere. Regional exhibits focus on land use within a defined geographic area, such as a state or neighborhood. Thematic exhibits are usually national in scope, and examine a particular land use phenomena or issue.

You may have heard that "Preservation is local."  For the most part, I believe there's truth in that statement.  What we all do ‘locally' - select your own geographic area of focus - to make these the best places to live is the best way to implement historic preservation.  But we should not forget that there are extremely important national preservation agendas that benefit what we do locally.

We start today looking forward with President-elect Obama to what he sees as the future for historic preservation in our country.  Senator Obama has recognized that federal urban policy is fundamentally flawed and how it inadvertently undermines cities and regions by encouraging inefficient and costly patterns of development.  For more on his strategies in his Blueprint for Change, see the Historic Preservation for Obama website.

And if you would like to provide some input into what you believe should be the top federal preservation priorities for the new administration, the National Trust for Historic Preservation is taking the Change Starts Here poll.  Should it include protection of archaeological resources on public lands?  Do we need more economic resources?  Should the National Parks system be given more resources for protection?  Please give your input.

If you've ever wanted to see how local activists can make a difference, you'll want to see the heartwarming documentary, Courthouse Girls of Farmland.  You won't believe how a group of bridge-players turn preservationists when their landmark courthouse is threatened.  Plan to attend this free screening by the Salt Lake City Film Center and co-sponsored by Utah Heritage Foundation and AARP, as well as the great panel that will discuss saving our great places in Utah, like the currently threatened Davis County Courthouse.

 

SCHEDULE

7:00 pm  Film Screening of Courthouse Girls of Farmland at City Library (Auditorium) Free

8:00 pm  Short Q and A with the film's director, Norman Klein, and the three "girls" who will be there

8:15 or 8:30-9 pm  Panel Discussion  featuring:

Pete Ashdown, Chair, Board of Trustees, Utah Heritage Foundation

Wilson Martin, Utah State Historic Preservation Office

Robin Zeigler, Senior Preservation Planner, SLC Planning Commission

NaVee Vernon, Historical Director, Summit Co. Historical Society

Alysa Revell, Chair, Farmington City Historic Preservation Commission

Wayne Goodman, Director, Eastern Regional Office, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana

There's something more cooking on Market Street than the great food these days at Gastronomy or Takashi.  If you haven't been by the historic Odd Fellows building lately, it's being prepared for its move across the street.  As the first step for the move, it is slowly being lifted and it's about 15 feet in the air off the original foundation.

Of course this is a HUGE success story for historic preservation in Salt Lake City and for Utah Heritage Foundation, the State Historic Preservation Office, National Trust for Historic Preservation Office, and Salt Lake City as the building was saved from the courthouse expansion project.  The U.S. General Services Administration is executing the courthouse expansion project which will include a new courthouse on West Temple that will be completed in 2012.  This week's Tribune story gives more details - http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10711637.

Also see a flash animated version of how the move will happen here - http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_10711637.

Here are more great photos of this move courtesy of Steve Cornell, project architect with Cooper Roberts Simonsen Associates, and a great UHF volunteer: