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Show , t i- v '- x -r-: . - --' ' - . ; f - ' --- . J v ' , r " ; Main Street in 1915. The Utah Power and Light building right is now the Alamo bar. City Backing Sought for Main St. The City Council of Park City will be asked to review and endorse the nomination of Park City's Main Street Commercial district to the National Register of Historic Places at their Thursday night meeting, March 16. Notification of city authorities is required as part of the nomination process and their endorsement or rejection of the nomination is noted in the documentation submitted for review by the Utah Cultural and Historic Sites Committee. When the nomination to the National Register of the Tintic Mining District came up (the Tintic district is the only other historic district in Utah considered consider-ed important enough nationally to nominate besides Park City), their town leadership voted to endorse the nomination to capitalize capital-ize on their unique historic character and increase visitor traffic. They felt if the Tintic mining district were designated a National Historic Site it would get people to stop there and increase tourism year round. This could be advantageous to Park City as well to be known as a recreational area and a National Historic Site as well. Park City's mining history is significant in the development of the American economy. Park City contributed to the overall industrial indust-rial development of the late 19th, early 20th century United States as mining entrepaneurs invested heavily in technological innovations innova-tions in use here. As one of the leading silver mining camps in the state, Park City money helped develop Salt Lake City into a regional mining center of the Rocky Mountain West. The Kearns Mansion and the Keith home are two residences in Salt Lake that were built with fortunes from Park City mining and are on the National Register as historically significant structures. struc-tures. It seem natural to register the district from which the money came to build those land marks. Most importantly, the commercial commer-cial district of the original Park City as it stands today serves to remind residents of our colorful past. These buildings, by their very presence, conjure up memorable mem-orable characters and events in our history. They orient new people and visitors to the historic nature of our town and should be preserved. Buildings and districts on the National Register are accorded certain protective measures where Federal funds are used. Namely, the privilege of review by Advisory Council on Historic Preservation on the effect of Federally financed, assisted, or licensed undertakings on historic properties. Listing on the register makes private property owners eligible to be considered for Federal grants-in-aid for historic preservation preser-vation through state programs. Beyond that there are no restrictions on owners of private properties and any restoration or demolition is purely voluntary if no federal funds are involved. Because Park City's ordinance allows changes in historic properties proper-ties at the discretion of the building inspector, and requires no committee review, private owners of historic property, even in nationally registered districts, have no restrictions on them whatsoever except those in our local ordinances and those are not legally binding. Council endorsement of the nomination of Park City's historic commercial district to the National Nation-al Register is the first step we can take in the preservation of our most endangered natural resource re-source our living history. |
