Preservation Utah honors Friends of Historic Spring City

SALT LAKE CITY—Preservation Utah gave its 2026 Heritage Organization Award to Friends of Historic Spring City during an awards program Tuesday in Salt Lake City.

The award was one of 10 handed out in the Community Stewardship category during the program at Memorial House, a restored event center in Memory Grove.

The Heritage Organization Award honors nonprofits and community groups whose sustained, organized presence has made a lasting impact on historic places in their communities, according to a Preservation Utah press release.

In Spring City, the release said, Friends of Historic Spring City has filled that role for more than four decades.

Among the Spring City residents and supporters who helped found the organization and attended the ceremony were M’Lisa Paulsen, Craig Paulsen, Joe Bennion and Lee Bennion.

The most prestigious award given by Preservation Utah in any category is the Lucy Beth Rampton Award for individual contributions. While the award was not given this year, past recipients from throughout the state were recognized, including Craig Paulsen, a Spring City resident and longtime restoration contractor, and Tom Carter, a University of Utah professor emeritus of architecture who, in the 1970s and 1980s, played a key role in getting Spring City designated as a National Historic District.

Spring City is regarded as one of the best-preserved 19th-century Mormon villages, the press release noted. Its limestone buildings, 1-acre lots and residential-farming character have endured while similar development in other Utah towns has not.

“This preservation is the result of deliberate action by citizens who, in 1983, recognized the value of their heritage and established an organization to protect it,” the Preservation Utah press release said.

One of the organization’s major accomplishments was securing more than $1 million in funding to restore the 1899 Spring City School and repaying a $323,000 loan, for which the organization itself committed, ahead of schedule.

The Friends also played a key role in restoring the former junior high school as a community activity center and art gallery.

The organization administers grants awarded to property owners who are restoring homes and outbuildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Since 1983, it has staged the annual Heritage Day, which in 2025 attracted 1,100 visitors and raised more than $24,000.

The press release announcing the award also mentioned the ongoing lot-size controversy in Spring City. It said the Friends are defending the 1-acre lots citywide, a defining feature of the “Plat of Zion” pattern followed in the original layout of the town, from subdivision development.

The release said the City Council recently reinstated the requirement, but development proponents have initiated a referendum. The Friends will continue their advocacy through November 2026 and beyond, according to the release.