To homeowners in our historic district (which is most of Old Town), Park City Municipal has a grant program that you can apply to for work on an historic or potentially historic home.
Projects eligible for the grant must apply through the city’s planning department and should work toward preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction work. This is a great opportunity for owners of historic homes to continue to preserve and rehabilitate their homes and keep them standing for generations to come.
Projects could be as simple as repairs for historic trims and detailing, as intensive as window replacements or foundation repairs, or as complex as seismic upgrades. The grant is a matching grant that will match up to potentially $15,000. So if you are approved for the full amount, you could do $30,000 worth of work at half the cost to you. Even doing $1,000 worth of work for $500 makes a difference in ability to do great preservation work.
One other opportunity for homeowners in the historic district is the chance to add a property to the city’s Historic Sites Inventory (HSI), which will add protections to the property and help it work toward eligibility for other funding opportunities and tax breaks. Any citizen, especially a property owner, can nominate a building to City Council (with input from the Historic Preservation Board) to be considered for its addition. To be added to the HSI, a home will need an intensive level survey. The grant mentioned above could cover much of the cost to have that survey done. This is especially important for homes in our first ski era, built ca. 1963 to 1975.
A few weeks ago, the Park City Museum published a Way We Were article that established that Park City’s first ski era is of as much historical importance to our town as our mining eras are. Included in that era are important structures like Treasure Mountain Inn, Chateau Apres Lodge, and many residences throughout mostly our Old Town and Thaynes Canyon neighborhoods. These structures help give Park City its unique fabric of mining meets skiing and add to the appeal Park City has for both residents and visitors. Utilizing the grant and adding these structures to the inventory is an excellent way to preserve them for future generations.
Historic Preservation is important work and we at the museum hope as many people take advantage of this grant opportunity as possible!