Historical Commission Agenda and Packet 2016 08 03 SP

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of the Historic Preservation Fund. Typically, the Planning Department's and Historic Preservation Commission's requests for reports are triggered by a demolition request or a homeowner's interest in applying for funding for a Historic Structure Assessment or for landmarking. In addition, the Museum Coordinator regularly collects information and photos about specific buildings and neighborhoods and makes them available to the public. Some cities have produced architectural and historical surveys with information about their historic buildings, sometimes on multiple occasions over a period of decades. In Louisville, however, many houses have never been researched. Unfortunately, it is often the case that the City has no information on file about a historic house in the old town overlay district at the time that the owner applies for a permit to demolish it. With access to historical information and photos that the Museum has collected, the Museum staff is in a unique position to try to rectify this situation. The historic preservation research conducted by the Museum Coordinator has been a positive activity that helps the Museum and the public. The research tends to build on itself as more facts about Louisville's early families and buildings become known. The Museum Coordinator makes every attempt for each report to be factually accurate, and is aware that City decision -makers will be basing their decisions on the information collected in the reports. Another goal, which relates to efficiencies, is for each report to be as complete as possible so that the property doesn't have to be researched again later for a different purpose. Also, the Museum's research of houses and families ties in directly with the Museum's central role in the community and with what many people feel is special about Louisville: its families, its longtime residents, its Old Town, and its sense of place. To date, the Museum has produced about 300 formal, written reports about historic buildings in Louisville, including about 90 that were done as part of the Jefferson Place Survey, and many of them are accessible online. Residents and staff of other cities have expressed admiration of Louisville's structure and the close working relationship that exists between the Planning Department and Historic Preservation Commission on the one hand, and the Historical Museum and Historical Commission on the other. The Historical Museum and Historical Commission are in support of the Preservation Master Plan that the City adopted in 2015. What Is There for Tourists to do in Louisville? Boulder County is seeing a boon in tourism, based on observation and anecdotal evidence. For Boulder specifically, this seems to be confirmed by visitor estimates put together by the Boulder Convention & Visitors Bureau. As Louisville garners more and more national attention, it has also become more of a heritage tourism destination as people come from other towns, other states, and other countries to see Louisville and spend time downtown. The Museum also regularly enjoys visits by people who visit Louisville from out-of-state and stay in its hotels because they have a family connection to Louisville and they are coming to a family reunion, even if no family members still live in Louisville. For example, on one weekend in 2015, eight women walked into the Museum and explained that they had flown in to Denver on eight different flights from all over the country and were staying in a Louisville hotel. They were all descended from Catherine Curtan, who was Louisville's telephone operator from the 1920s to the early 1940s. As a widow, she had raised her children in the back of the telephone building at 913 Main Street. The eight visitors explained that when it came time to select a location for their reunion, there was no question that they would gather in Louisville, about which they had all heard stories. 12