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Meeker National Historic District survey begins

Bob Amick/For the Saturday Morning Press

The Meeker National Historic District survey and evaluation nomination process is underway and will continue for the next 24 months.

Carl McWilliams, a renowned historical consultant of Ft. Collins has been contracted by the Town of Meeker in cooperation with the Rio Blanco County Historical Society [RBCHS]
National Historic District Task Force [NHDTF] to provide a turnkey evaluation, research, consulting and nomination effort. The project will eventually result in a nomination and designation of the historic Downtown Meeker Area as a National Historic District.
National Historic District Task Force [NHDTF] to provide a turnkey evaluation, research, consulting and nomination effort. The project will eventually result in a nomination and designation of the historic Downtown Meeker Area as a National Historic District.

National Historic District Task Force [NHDTF] to provide a turnkey evaluation, research, consulting and nomination effort. The project will eventually result in a nomination and designation of the historic Downtown Meeker Area as a National Historic District.

McWilliams recently arrived in Meeker and began collecting data on the approximately 48 structures, including private residences, businesses and government-owned buildings that have been identified as eligible by History Colorado’s Office of Archeological and Historic Preservation (OAHP) for designation on the State of Colorado and on the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service register of National Historic Places.



McWilliams met with NHDTF members Jan Oldland, Brian Conrado, Ellene Meece, Avis Loshbaugh, Kav and Bob Bivens and Bob Amick for a detailed oral history interview and discussion (which was recorded on video) on the origin and evolution of historic structures and their owners of the proposed district. Future meetings will involve many Meeker citizens and members of pioneer families who were a part of the origin of Meeker dating back to the 1880s. Anyone wishing to participate on the NHDTF is most welcome. See contact information below.

History Colorado’s State Historical Fund Director Steve W. Turner, AIA announced in January that the Town of Meeker, in collaboration with the RBCHS National Historic District Task Force was awarded a grant of $21,262. The grant provides funding to commission McWilliams to initiate an extensive evaluation of historic Meeker structures located within the identified boundaries of the proposed district, and to subsequently prepare a nomination for creation of a National Historic District to be submitted to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park Service.



The Freeman Fairfield Charitable Trust also generously provided the required 25 percent matching funding in the amount of $7,088 for the total sum of $28,350 necessary to initiate the evaluation and nomination process.

There are approximately 110 National Historic Districts in various Colorado cities which have been shown to enhance heritage tourism and thus improve economic development and related benefits to those rural and urban communities. For more information please contact the RBCHS at 970 878-9982 or e-mail amick@colorado.edu.


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