Historic Preservation panel conducts focus session

Washington Trust for Historic Preservation conducted a focus group at Perkins House in Colfax hosted by Val Gregory, the executive director of Colfax Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Association and Historical Society.

Washington Trust for Historic Preservation is a statewide nonprofit for historic preservations throughout the state, not to be confused with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, though the two groups share similar missions.

The representative from the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, Jae Morton, said their office wanted to ask communities from around the state if they knew who the group was or what they did, and what preservation means to people.

“We’re just trying to start a conversation around the state, make some more connections and talk to folks,” said Morton. “That’s the main goal of this whole exercise, to hear the voices and opinions of the people that are in sort of our state-wide community.”

A small focus group of local residents was brought together for the discussion. Attending were Mary Davidson, owner of the Dusty Attic and Vice President of the Downtown Association; Laura and Austin Storm, owners of Bully For You in Colfax and Storm Cellar in Moscow; Caleb Cox, the director of sales and marketing at the Best Western in Colfax and a member of the town’s Economic Development and Tourism and Events Commission; Debbie Snell, the Properties and Development Manager for the Port of Whitman County and co-chair of the Colfax Historic Preservation Commission, and treasurer of the Colfax Arts Council; Frank White and Claudia Rollins, from the Historic Preservation Commission, and Nancy Cochran co-owner of Henhouse Chicks.

Gregory asked a series of questions to the group starting with, “Have you heard of the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation before?”

Snell had known of WTHP from several years ago, when she helped arrange for tours of historic properties in the area for the group which was having meetings in Colfax.

Davidson only knew of it because they help support the Downtown Association.

Austin Storm recognized the organization’s name because of their responsibility for the Statewide Most Endangered list, which includes St. Ignatius in Colfax.

The next question, “When you hear the word preservations, what comes to mind?” started some laughs when Cochran immediately answered, “Wrinkle cream.”

Other answers included, “old,” “make it so it can last longer,” and “it’s also something that needs to be saved, not that’s better torn down, it has a reason to keep going.”

When asked if a modifier changed those first answers, the universal answer was “yeah.”

Cochran elaborated on historic preservation, “It has a tie to generations in the past.”

The group was asked if there were other words that could be thrown in front of “preservation” to change its meaning.

Davidson noted that no matter the word, it meant to preserve that thing. “Heritage” was thrown on the table as a word that could be used in place of historical.

“Every one of those buildings has a story,” said Snell, referring to the buildings in downtown Colfax. “Uncovering those stories and remembering those stories I think is important to the soul and character of a community.”

Austin Storm brought up his struggles in convincing people of the value of preserving historical buildings, and that some people don’t always see the value of utilizing or saving historical buildings. Both Storms agreed that old buildings are easier to maintain when they are being used.

Cochran agreed. “If you’re in them, they seem to stay workable longer.”

Using the example of ‘grandma’s house’, she said, “as long as somebody was living there, it stayed put together, as soon as they moved out and it sat empty, it falls apart.”

Cox strongly agreed with her point.

“To preserve something you need people,” said Laura Storm.

When asked to describe a place that mattered to them, the most common answers were their homes, Perkin’s House and St. Ignatius, though each person had a slightly different answer as to where’s and why’s.

Later, the group was asked what they would say to convince someone to help preserve one of these buildings.

“Once you lose something like that, you never regain it, particularly in a place like Colfax,” said Austin Storm.

Words like rare, unique, sturdy and priceless were discussed.

“You can’t build them the same as they were back then,” said Cochran.

“I love that there’s stories,” said Laura Storm. “And you get to dig and find out stories of things that happened in this place that you magically now get to be the steward of.”

“It’s to continue the story of the history of Colfax,” said Davidson.

When asked how the trust would be useful to them, Rollins said, “Publicity of the fact that historical research is ongoing. It is available if you are interested, rather than doing the research and then just burying it in a drawer somewhere.”

At the end of the focus group meeting, Morton commented on how interesting the conversation was.

“That’s essentially what we’re looking to try to do, is to create better relationships and understand what’s important to people,” said Morton.