At the Park City Chamber’s annual meeting Thursday at the Pendry Park City, the Myles Rademan Spirit of Hospitality Award was given to former Park City Councilmember Tina Lewis.
The award is given every year to honor a community member who strives to make Park City a better place. It’s named after Myles Rademan, who used to lead planning and public affairs at Park City Municipal, and now runs the city’s leadership program.
Lewis, who served on the city council during the turbulent 1980s, first came to Park City in 1963 to check out the new ski resort with some friends.
“After our fun day at the slopes, we decided to drive up Main Street, a place that a decade earlier had been featured in a book about Utah ghost towns,” Lewis said. “There were dozens of vacant, dilapidated buildings. There were lots where buildings had burned to the ground… There were crumbling, enchanting, historic structures. And there was a handful of tiny, little businesses that were on life support.”
Despite those characteristics, Lewis said Park City had a charm that enticed her.
“I instantly fell in love with Park City,” she said. “The mountains that surrounded this tiny little isolated town were like a big hug both physically and psychologically. And about 10 years later, I actually moved to Park City, and interestingly at that same time, a group of other young people started to congregate here from all around the country.”
Along with holding elected office, Lewis was the first full-time director of the Park City Arts Festival, now known as the Kimball Arts Festival.
According to former Park City Chamber Executive Director Deb Travis Archer, Lewis played a key role in bringing other major events to town, including the Sundance Film Festival and the 2002 Winter Olympics.
“She was critical in our hosting the first large convention that had ever come here,” Archer said. “There were no event venues here. The Yarrow had barely opened. There was no place but we had thousands of people here. She created places where people could explore the city, have activities, and she went to work to make sure it was a great success.”
Archer said Lewis' ability to design and organize began to be known as the “Tina touch.”
Lewis’ election to the Park City Council in 1979 was during a period of major growth, Archer said.
“That is was in the midst of - you can imagine - this tremendous building and development boom. And Tina, while she saw wild opportunity, she also thought we have to be really careful about this place. And we have to do it judiciously and we have to be smart.”
Lewis also helped move the historic Miner’s Hospital from its original location on Nelson Hill near the Glenwood Cemetery to City Park, where it stands today.
“It was a building worth saving, but she also thought we need a new library here,” Archer said. “To move the library… she created a book brigade, like an old water brigade, and we moved books from the old library to the new library, and that was Tina’s idea.”
According to the Park City Library, that brigade included 750 Parkites and approximately 5,000 volumes. About a decade later, the library outgrew the Miner’s Hospital, and was moved to the old Park City High School where it remains today.
Tina Lewis is also a former KPCW board member.
