Planning for Preservation in Washington, Iowa

SPARK Consulting; McCarley, Rebecca

Executive summary: "Washington is located in Washington County in southeastern Iowa (see maps on the following pages). The Washington Historic Preservation Commission was organized by local ordinance in the fall of 2005. They have been involved in various training activities, held annual events, and participated in local organizations and committees since this time. h spring 2008, the Washington Historic Preservation Commission received their first grant for preservation activities. This Certified Local Government (CLG) grant was used to complete the Planning for Preservation project for the City of Washington, as summarized in this report. Rebecca Lawin Mccarley served as the project consultant, and Mary Patterson, chair of the commission, served as the local project director. This Planning for Preservation study will become the fist step in a phased program to identify, evaluate, register, protect, and promote the cultural resources of Washington. The project has provided the Washington Historic Preservation Commission with an opportunity to identify historic resources in the community for future preservation projects, to identify historic contexts that represent significant aspects of the city's history and development, to discuss how historic preservation can work with economic development programs, and to prioritize future historic preservation projects. Public input was sought initially on future preservation activities during a public presentation and forum in September 2008 and continued to be sought through the presentation of the final report and recommendations in May 2009. The project was designed with a "hands-on" survey component for the Washington Historic Preservation Commission, as well as local interested residents, to gain practical experience in researching and documenting the history of historic buildings on an Iowa Site Inventory form. A survey boundary for the downtown area was identified by Rebecca Lawin Mccarley. Through coordination with Mary Patterson, the survey project was organized, and a training session was held by the consultant in October 2008. A total of 130 properties were included in the survey project. After the initial training, the research and survey efforts were supervised at the local level by Mary Patterson. Additional survey work and evaluation will be required for these buildings at a future date, but significant research on a number of properties was completed through this initial survey project. The project consultant, Rebecca Lawin Mccarley, completed other project activities, such as a review of previous work in Washington and research into the basic history of Washington. She completed a windshield survey of the historic resources and neighborhoods of Washington in September 2008, with a follow up in October with Mary Patterson. Through this work and the input from the public forum, several recommendations have been made for future preservation activities in Washington, as outlined in the recommendations section of this report. The results of the project activities, with a focus on architectural surveys and National Register of Historic Places nominations, were presented by the consultant at a third public meeting in May 2009. Project funding was provided in part by a 2008 Historic Preservation Fund grant to the City of Washington (project number IA-08-006) administered by Iowa State Historic Preservation Office (grant number 19-08-21720) administered by the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Washington, Iowa is a Certified Local Government.