Firm to apply for city neighborhoods’ placement on National Register of Historic Places
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Residents of the Mellor, McKinney, Bodenhamer, Forest Lawn, and Eastridge subdistricts can see if their properties and / or neighborhoods will be nominated for a place on the National Register of Historic Places within the next few months.
In the past few months, 326 properties have been surveyed in the mostly residential areas north of the city’s central business district and west of the railroad tracks that cross Main, Faulkner, Champagnolle and 19th Street.
Terracon Consultant Services, Inc. is conducting an eligibility investigation and inventory to determine whether the subdivisions are eligible for nomination for the NRHP as local historic districts and / or individually listed properties.
Terracon is headquartered in Kansas. A team from the company’s Austin, Texas office is working on the DOE project in El Dorado.
The work is funded by a $ 49,049 scholarship awarded to the city by the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program last year.
The El Dorado Historic District Commission is leading the DOE survey as part of a city-wide heritage protection plan that was drawn up in 2020.
Prior to drafting the master plan, the district historic commissioners had long considered the area north of the city’s three existing historic districts for the next DOE survey and a possible nomination for the state and national register of historic places.
The El Dorado Commercial Historic District, which includes most of the city’s downtown area, and two historic residential neighborhoods – Murphy-Hill and Mahoney, both north of the Union Square District – are listed on the NRHP.
Terracon started the latest DOE survey in March.
Team members previously reported that the fieldwork is complete and they have begun drafting historical resource survey forms that they will be submitting to the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program for review.
During a meeting of the El Dorado Historic District Commission Thursday, Elizabeth Eggleston, executive director of EHDC, said she had received an update on the project from the Terracon team.
Eggleston reported that the company was finalizing the site plans for the first 10 survey forms and expected to submit the forms to the AHPP by Friday.
“With that we made about 30 to 40% of our way through the survey forms,” wrote Beth Venezuela, senior architectural historian at Terracon, in an email.
Venezuela also wrote that the team hopes to have 60-70% of the work completed by early next week and to present its first draft report by July 23.
“Sounds like they’re on their way,” said EHDC chairman Ken Bridges.
Eggleston said Terracon is also working with its accounting department to match payments from the city in installments that match the work’s schedule.
Eggleston said copies of the checks presented to Terracon and the draft report would have to be submitted by July 23 in order for EHDC to finalize the grant with the state.
“We check that Terracon’s payments match our records. If we do not complete this scholarship within the deadline, we will be blocked from the state’s online scholarship portal and will not be able to use that portal to apply for another scholarship, ”stated Eggleston.
“My main thing is I don’t want to miss any deadlines with the state for a federal grant,” she added.
The city has already received another grant from the state to begin the next DOE survey of the Retta Brown and Country Club Colony neighborhoods.
The grant is $ 22,648, of which $ 9,660 is earmarked for Retta Brown and $ 6,440 for CCC.
On other matters, Eggleston reminded commissioners of an upcoming workshop hosted by the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions.
She said the workshop, scheduled for August 24-25, will be presented online and attendees dealing in real estate and architecture will be eligible for training hours.
Eggleston also said a NAPC forum will be hosted in person in Cincinnati next year, citing the easing of coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions.
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