Preservation Utah announces 2026 Community Stewardship Award recipients

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Preservation Utah announced its 2026 Community Stewardship Award recipients on Tuesday, which recognizes individuals and organizations who have made a lasting impact in preserving Utah’s historic places.

Preservation Utah, dedicated to protecting Utah’s historic landmarks, announced the 10 recipients of the 2026 Community Stewardship Awards who will be honored on April 28 from 9 a.m. to noon at Memorial House in Memory Grove Park in Salt Lake City as part of the organization’s 60th anniversary.

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“These 10 recipients represent the full breadth of what historic preservation looks like in Utah today,” said Brandy Strand, executive director of Preservation Utah. “This year’s awardees demonstrate that preservation is not a niche concern. It belongs to every community in this state.”

As listed on Preservation Utah’s website, this year’s awards with their respective winners are as follows:

Adaptive Reuse

Arbor 515 (Wilde Wood Tower), Salt Lake City

Instead of demolishing the vacant 14-story Modernist office tower at 515 East 100 South, the Utah Perpetual Housing Fund and Rocky Mountain Homes Fund converted the 1981 building, designed by Utah Modernist architect Bill Browning, into 96 affordable housing units, a Montessori school, and one of the nation’s first renter wealth-building programs. Supported by over $12 million from the Salt Lake Community Reinvestment Agency, the project was completed in October 2025 and recognized by Governor Spencer Cox and Mayor Erin Mendenhall as a national model for affordable housing. The owners plan to nominate the building to the National Register of Historic Places when it turns 50.

Community Revitalization

The Milk Block, Salt Lake City

Owners Kathia Dang and Sam Sleiman preserved and rehabilitated the 1941 commercial building at 416 East 900 South, a contributing resource in the Liberty Wells Historic District. They uncovered original bow trusses, restored the Art Deco corner marquee, and repaired the terracotta facade. The Milk Block’s anchor tenant is the Wasatch Cooperative Food Market, Salt Lake City’s first food co-op, serving a neighborhood previously without access to fresh food. All other tenants are locally owned businesses. Equality Utah is headquartered at the block, which is named for Harvey Milk Boulevard.

Research Industry Expert

Korral Broschinsky, statewide

Korral Broschinsky has spent over thirty years documenting Utah’s historic resources. Since founding Preservation Documentation Resource in 1999, she has conducted statewide historic surveys, prepared dozens of successful National Register nominations, and supported property owners with state and federal historic tax credit programs. From 2006 to 2012, her firm surveyed nearly 5,000 buildings in Murray for the Utah State Historic Preservation Office. She is the author of two books on Murray history and served two terms on the Murray City Historic Preservation Advisory Board.

Legacy Business

Roosters Hospitality Group, Ogden and Northern Utah

For thirty years, founders Kym and Pete Buttschardt have operated in historic spaces along Ogden’s most significant corridor, viewing older buildings as valuable assets. When they opened Roosters Brewing Co. on Historic 25th Street in 1995, in a building constructed in 1893 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Ogden’s downtown was at a turning point. Their ongoing investment has helped revitalize the street through economic challenges and growth. In 2023, the Utah Restaurant Association honored Roosters with its Golden Spoon: Restaurateur of the Year award.

Heritage Organization

Friends of Historic Spring City, Spring City, Sanpete County

Founded in 1983 and incorporated in 1998, Friends of Historic Spring City has spent over forty years preserving the historic character of Utah’s best-preserved nineteenth-century Mormon village. The organization restored the 1899 Spring City Public School, now the Community Center, securing over $1 million in funding and repaying the Community Impact Board loan ahead of schedule. With about 180 volunteers in a town of 1,000, the Friends now lead efforts to protect the one-acre lots that form the foundation of the Plat of Zion layout, which the National Register district was established to safeguard.

Steward of the Historic Built Environment

Susan Dolemba / Nebeker-Kearl House, Laketown, Rich County

When Susan Dolemba purchased the circa-1880 Nebeker-Kearl House in 2002, the upper story had been deemed uninhabitable. Over eight years, she rebuilt the staircase, restored the kitchen and parlor to their original locations, repaired the sandstone foundation, and returned the exterior to its historic appearance, completing the project in 2010 with federal and state historic tax credits. She has cared for the house for over twenty years. The Nebeker-Kearl House is the best surviving early frame home in Laketown and a leading example of Victorian Eclectic design in rural Utah.

Rehabilitation and Restoration

Bernard O. Mecklenburg Residence, Salt Lake City

Jesse and Erin Deller purchased 951 East South Temple, a 19061907 Classical Box residence designed by a leading early twentieth-century Salt Lake City architect and located in the South Temple Local Historic District. The home had been divided into apartments and suffered years of damage. Without institutional support or historic tax credits, the Dellers hand-stripped paint from historic sandstone, rebuilt original wooden windows using traditional methods, restored the original floor plan, and returned the home’s original front door, which they found at the rear of the house, to its intended place.

Browning Apartments, Ogden

Developer Casey Keller inherited a partially remodeled 1916 Prairie Style apartment building at 2703 Washington Boulevard, individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with a complex title history and two Utah State Historic Preservation Office site visits documenting prior noncompliant work. He resolved these issues by stripping and refinishing painted Mississippi red gum woodwork, uncovering and restoring original penny tile floors at both main entrances, and fabricating custom wood doors to replace incompatible vinyl ones. The project earned both Federal and State Historic Tax Credits for the first time in the building’s history.

Silver King Coalition Mine Headframe Building, Park City

The Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History, a committee of the Park City Museum, led a four-year rehabilitation of the 1926 Silver King Coalition Mine Headframe Building in Woodside Gulch above Park City Mountain Resort. This 12,400-square-foot industrial landmark had been vacant since 1953, was listed among Preservation Utah’s 2024 Most Endangered Sites, and was at risk of structural failure due to a collapsing mine shaft. Completed in October 2025, the project stabilized the shaft, rebuilt the snow-damaged roof using original corrugated metal panels with their historic patina, and secured the building as the centerpiece of the Silver King Coalition Mine National Historic District, designated in December 2024. The building will anchor the Park City Historic Mine Route, launching in September 2026.

University of Utah Fort Douglas Buildings 661, 662 & 663, Salt Lake City

After a 2020 windstorm exposed 1980s-era vinyl siding on three 1891 Army cottages along Connor Road at Fort Douglas, the University of Utah redirected a planned exterior upgrade to a full rehabilitation. The project recreated lost Victorian details, including the transition between fish scale shingles and drop siding, incorporated a significant seismic upgrade while preserving the historic character of the interiors, and restored all three porches to their documented historic configurations. Buildings 661, 662, and 663 will return to housing for faculty and staff in 2026, fulfilling their original purpose.

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