Since 1966 Preservation Utah’s mission has been to preserve, promote and protect Utah’s historic built environment and cultural resources through public awareness, advocacy and active preservation.
The nonprofit released the Endangered Historic Places list for the first time last year. Executive Director Brandy Strand said the organization is now asking Utahns to nominate historic places they believe are endangered for the 2025 list.
“We want to hear from the community, and we want to hear about what's important to our neighbors, so that we can then rally to support them and preserving and protecting that space or historical environment,” she said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour.”
The 2024 Endangered Historic Places list highlighted three locations in Summit County. One was the Byron T. Mitchell home in Francis. It was one of the first brick homes in the area and Mitchell designed it himself.
According to Preservation Utah, the home has been vacant since the 1970s and is in danger of demolition from neglect.
“It's such a unique and beautiful structure, and it's just kind of sitting out there all on its own,” Strand said. “We wanted to make sure people knew about that building.”
The 2024 list also highlighted the Thaynes headframe building, Silver King headframe building and Silver King Mill at Park City Mountain. Restoration efforts are ongoing on the Thaynes hoist house.
Finally, A-frame buildings in Park City were on the list. More than 70 of the ski-era structures have been lost in the last two decades. According to the nonprofit, only two true A-frames, where the roof is a triangle all the way to the ground level, remain.
Strand said it’s difficult to save historic places like this without heightened public awareness. She said the endangered list provides that awareness and allows communities to rally around important places.
For example, Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City made the 2024 list and was officially added to the National Register of Historic Places this year.
“There was a big potential that we could lose it, and rather than just kind of sitting idly by and waiting for things to happen, the community, with the public awareness that was done around that building, rallied to secure that building's future,” Strand said.
No locations from Wasatch County were on last year’s list. Strand encourages its residents to nominate places to protect in 2025.
The nomination form can be found here.
