Spring City leads the way in historic preservation and restoration in Utah.

In 1970 it was designated a National Historic City and since then 50 of its homes have been lovingly restored.

So come with me as we meet some of the owners of those homes and get a peek inside them.

♪ ♪ [Craig Paulsen] I've always viewed historic buildings as something that will never be able to be replaced again.

The materials don't exist often anymore, and to me it's really important to save that work.

♪ [Mary Dickson] So when you got this place you showed me photos, it was a wreak.

[Randall Lake] A ruin, a total ruin.

I mean it had to be re-roofed, reglaze, repointed rejoiced, re-floored.

I mean everything had to be done.

♪ [Mary] it's the 30th anniversary of Heritage Tours it seems impossible but it's been that many years.

[Randal Thatcher] Doesn't it though 30 years of these historic home tours, Heritage Day and celebrating our pioneer heritage here in Utah, which is a big deal.

I'm amazed that people in Utah don't know that this entire town of Spring City, the whole town is on the National Historic Register.

There's only one other town in the entire country that's on the Historical Register and that's Colonial Williamsburg.

So it's a special place we have here.

[Vicki Allen] When we started restoring the home, as we learned about the people that owned the home, and build the home, we developed a deeper appreciation for the heritage of what built this town, and the people that were here, and who built this home, and, you know, that this heritage that they started, you know, has been handed down.

The people here, they do drop in you know and bring you a loaf of bread or flowers or you know come in to visit and it's it's like living in yesteryear you know.

[Mary] Yeah, truely.

I do like that about this place.

Shari and her mom would come and go to the Heritage Day tour of the old pioneer homes every year and this was the last house on the tour, Sherry walked in one door and fell in love with the house and walked out the front door and there nailed to a tree was a for sale sign.

[Mary] Meant to be.

[Randal] Cosmic sign, yes.

[Mark Allen] You know what, I love the fact that we live in a home that was built before electricity and gas.

And running water.

And running water and so here we are in a home, even though we have, you know, hundred-year-old electric lights here it is 1920 when you walk in the front door.

[Vicki] Just the fact that people were restoring the places here and keeping them.

And wanting to keep that alive.

The beautiful Chapel that's down there that was threatened to be torn down and people in town rallied around it and saved it.

You know, and how fabulous that is because you can go in there now and touch the places that the people touch that built it and that's so important.

I think when you learn about your heritage you pass that down to your children and talk to them about it makes us all feel a little more connected.

[Mary] You are a master restoration specialist a craftsman, You've done buildings we all know about, tell me why it's so important to preserve this town?

In the context of green building it makes sense in my mind to save an old building rather than tear it down and have to do all the... buy all new materials.

It's salvaging them I think is really good for the environment.

[bell ringing] [Randal Lake] I bought this maybe in the late 70s.

It was the endowment house slash John Frank Allred Schoolhouse.

But here's the deal this building was built for the Relief Society and Orson Hyde's wife was the Relief Society president and in his journal he said that before the Manti Temple was completed he performed endowments in his wife's office which was this building.

[Mary] And your paintings are all over the walls.

Which is so nice.

Well you know I love the height of the ceiling because I can bring my full standing portraits down here you know.

♪ If you go out for a Sunday stroll you're sure to be stopped and hear are a few stories along the way.

And everybody seems to have either a craft or some sort of a trade or their artists.

It's fun to live here there are so many interesting people you meet all kinds of characters.

it's a tight-knit community.

As you would expect, it's a town of roughly 900 [Randal] it's so slow here and you know everybody on a first-name basis.

I mean my pharmacist the post lady the girl that sells me my alcohol.

I mean we're all on like a first-name basis.

[Mary] And Melissa, when you came here you were living in the house while it was being restored.

Luckily my grandfather had a cabin and I used to love to go up to the cabin and build fires and sort of fish in the river.

When I realized I had to do fires here I thougth "Oh, that's fun."

Most people here said "I don't know how you did it."

[Mary] And Craig got his horses and you got a studio so you can paint.

That's right, that was what I wanted so I love my studio and I do paint a lot.

That common ground of something that identifies who you are... the whole town is that way.

You know, this town has a unique factor in it, that really kind of bonds people together.

[Vicki] Just a lot of creative thinkers.

♪ [Mary] Talk about where you find inspiration to paint here.

You know, you just walk outside and there's a painting.

I mean the nice thing is, this is off of 89, so we don't have through traffic so we just have one gas station things stay pretty much the same.

Sanpete, the landscape possibilities are inexhaustible.

♪ [Mary] Are there still properties that are dilapidated here that need to be restored?

That are in want of your loving touch?

There are.

There are.

And, you know, I can think of at least a half-dozen that I'd like to get you know like to see finished before I can't do it anymore.

Because the time is coming when I'm going to run out of the energy to be able to do this type of work [Mary] Can you talk about the homes that are going to be on this year?

I think there are a few homes that will be on this year that have not been on in the past.

That people haven't seen before.

This year they're going to focus on a lot of the homes that are along Main Street.

And the church, the old historic church of course, is always on.

Several artists studios will be open.

It's a good time.

it's just so neat that once you have this passion and this love that once a year you can come down here walk into a house and walk through this and experience really what draws us here.

And why we're here and why we're putting all this together.

Yeah it's it's fun to have that connection and be a part of that but it's so much more enjoyable for people to come down and experience it with us.

And keep it alive so that it's not lost forever.

The Friends of Historic Spring City will hold their annual Spring City Heritage Day this year it's on May 28th.

You'll be able to see beautiful examples of restored pioneer homes.

This town is a historic gym, you don't want to miss it.

You can get tickets either at the old School House or at the Fire Station.

For Contacting the Community, I'm Mary Dickson.

♪