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Nearly two years of work and planning has led to a statewide honor for Eureka Springs and the city’s Historic District Commission.
Preserve Arkansas honored the city and HDC with the Ned Shank Award for Outstanding Preservation Publication at an awards dinner in Little Rock on Friday, Jan. 27.
The award, named after Shank, a Eureka Springs writer and historic preservationist, was presented for the updated “Eureka Springs Historic District Design Guidelines,” published in 2022 by The Lakota Group.
The publication, which was nearly two years in the making, “is a work of art that empowers property owners, tradespeople, and the Historic District Commission to be good stewards of Eureka Springs’s architectural history,” according to a release from Preserve Arkansas.
“It’s great to get awarded for this because we had worked on it for a couple of years,” said HDC chair Dee Bright, who has been involved with the commission the past 16 years. “This means a lot to me. I think, especially in this town, we need to preserve everything. We need to preserve what we can.”
Bright said the HDC, spearheaded by former city preservation officers Glenna Booth and Kylee Hevrdejs, revamped the city’s historic district guidelines to help clear up rules and regulations to help residents.
“We voted before Glenna Booth left to start this,” Bright said. “Then Kylee came and started and got The Lakota Group. She was responsible for getting it all moving forward.”
Kyle Palmer, who was on the commission before replacing Hevrdejs in November, agreed the honor from Preserve Arkansas is the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of people.
“The new guidelines are definitely important for people living in the historic district,” Palmer said. “They’re more clear on what we’re looking for as a commission for members of the community, and I feel like there’s a lot more information in there on how to do certain processes. The guidelines before didn’t really provide any recommendations on how to proceed with some of these different things that they do with their historic properties.
“So, yes, we were very excited about. Eureka Springs is pretty famous for its historic preservation and being able to put out these guidelines, and then get recognition for it, it was really exciting.”
Bright said she was happy to be there to help accept the award during the banquet and program.
“I’m on the HDC and I’m also on the Eureka Springs Preservation Society, so I think this is quite an honor for our town,” she said. “To be honored by the state is just wonderful.”
So is the historic part of Eureka Springs, and Bright’s focus on preserving it remains a priority.
“Tourism is really all we have,” she said. All of the historic features in our town is part of the reason why people come here. We’re unique, little charming Victorian village. We have trees, scenery, but it all goes hand in hand.
“Otherwise, we wouldn’t have the tourism and that’s what pays the bills in this town.”
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