Historic League Gets $12K Grant (That's a Lot of Preservation)

The Sonoma County Landmarks Commission granted the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation $12,650 to fund reviewing and updating the Sonoma Valley Historic Resources Survey records.

The funding comes through the Sonoma County Transient Occupancy Tax(TOT) as an acknowledgement of the link between historic landscapes and visitors to Sonoma County.

The grant is an exciting opportunity to understand the importance of the unincorporated areas of Sonoma Valley. Surveys are critical tools for understanding, identifying, evaluating and protecting those resources that give each community its individual character and sense of place.

The project will assist in ensuring that the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation has the tools needed for stewardship of the historic properties in their purview. This includes supporting preservation research, property identification and documentation and preservation advocacy.

This grant has funded the first of two parts of a larger project that will create ‘Historic Context Statements’ for the unincorporated areas of Sonoma Valley.

‘The Historic Context Statement is an organizing structure for grouping information about historic properties that share a common theme, place, and time. A historic context focuses on describing those historical development patterns within which the significance of an area or building can be understood.’

The project has received a letter of support from the State Office of Historic Preservation and was passed unanimously by the Landmarks Commission.

The project will be led by Diana Painter an architectural historian whose qualifications meet the Professional Qualifications Standards of the National Park Service in history and architectural history and as outlined in the Code of Federal Regulations, 36 CFR Part 61.

Anyone interested in helping with this project should contact the SLHP at 707-938-0619 and leave a message.