May Archaeology & Historic Preservation awards, Boulder County
To wrap up Archaeology & Historic Preservation Month, we would like to present to you a list of those individuals in BOULDER COUNTY who were honored at the annual May Awards Ceremony, which takes place at Chautauqua Community House, Boulder.
The event started out with a tour of the Chautauqua grounds and buildings (1898), and then a social hour. The first agenda item was honoring those who had passed away in the previous year, who had done extraordinary work in the field of history preservation. Among those was our own LaVern Johnson, who had won the prestigious Square Nail award back in 2002 for a lifetime of work. Many of the people there remembered her, and most said that she would always give a big speech about what was going on in Lyons!
The “Square Nail Awards” are presented each spring by the City of Boulder, Boulder County, and the Boulder Heritage Roundtable to individuals who have made special contributions to historic preservation in Boulder County in the past years. And, yes, the wooden plaques has real nails on it — The antique square nails are from a Boulder County historic building, in the foothills. The same person has handmade the award for multiple years.
1. Jean Morgan, Historic Preservation Commission: she helped restore and preserve three miner cabins in Louisville. As you know, Superior and Louisville suffered extensive fire damage in 2022 (more than 1,000 homes were lost). Some of the miner cabins were lost, including the one that housed the city’s history museum. They have opened it up in a temporary building.
2. Jeff Medanich, Preservation Manager at Colorado Chautauqua Association: many people said that it should be a life-time achievement award because he has done so much for Chautauqua over the years, it would take too long to list it all.
3. Bridget Bacon, Musieum Services Supervisor, Louisville: she has done extraordinary work in the town’s history museum archives.
4. James Hewat, Senior Historic Preservation Planner: he has worked for Boulder for 18 years, retiring last year, and has worked every year on projects with the guidance of Boudler Heritage Roundtable.
2022 Boulder County Landmarks awards when to the individual groups who helped restore– preservation projects and historic properties that have been landmarked during the past year:
(1) McCaffree Cabin
(2) Windwhistle, Allenspark
(3) Murray – Culver Farm, 7698 St Vrain Road
(4) John E. Clark Farm
(5) Eisele Ranch
2022 City of Boulder Project Award is presented by the City of Boulder Landmarks Board, as follows
(1) Chautauqua Pavilion, based on 1899 photos
(2) 1635 Kalmia Avenue – Harper-Lungren House, owned by Steve Masons
(3) 1102 Pearl Street (was a tavern, and Old Chicago)
(4) 1109 Walnut (Rosetta Hall, was a car dealer)
(5) 1135 Broadway (a great example of a Late Modernist Building).
The ROCKY MT CLIMBERS CLUB was presented with the host award – Heritage Roundtable Local History and Preservation Honor Award. It began life at the same time as the Colorado Chautauqua in 1898.
In addition, authors who have written books about Boulder County history are recognized as well as special preservation projects and historic properties that have been landmarked during the past year.
