Park City Museum's Historic Home Tour

From June 2010

This past Saturday was the big fundraiser of the year for the Park City Museum, the Historic Home Tour. The tour is self-guided, with the help of a nice little booklet (I'm a bit biased, since I helped edit it) and a dedicated group of truly delightful volunteers. There is a great volunteer culture in Park City. It's yet another reason why I find the place so endearing.

The home above is 817 Woodside Avenue, or as it's known locally, the LaPage Raddon House. It's been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1984. A true newspaper man, Raddon served as a linotype operator at his father's weekly paper, The Park Record, for many years prior to purchasing half interest in the publication. Here's a quote from page 9 of the booklet that tells a bit about the architecture: "This single-story frame bungalow is characteristic of Park City bungalows with a low pitched roof and clipped gable ends. The symmetry of the facade is showcased by a center door sandwiched between two horizontal window bays divided vertically into three parts by mullions."

From June 2010

823 Norfolk Avenue

One of the great things about the booklet is that it shows old photos of the homes from the Museum's photo collection. It also gives brief histories of some of the homes' earliest inhabitants.

From June 2010

839 Woodside Avenue

The best part of the home tour was seeing what folks had done with their homes. I didn't take any photos of the interiors because I decided to be in the moment, enjoying the homes rather than being tied to documenting that portion of the experience. As a food blogger, I've known this feeling before and have decided not to take photos in restaurants unless it's a completely amazing dish/meal.

All that to say, in some cases, the homes were very well done. In others, they were works in progress.

From June 2010

901 Woodside Avenue

From June 2010

902 Norfolk Avenue

From June 2010

945 Norfolk Avenue

From June 2010

1009 Norfolk Avenue

After enjoying the tour, I helped out at the ticket tent before joining the big group of volunteers, homeowners, and other museum folks at the reception at Zoom Restaurant (one of Sundance's restaurants located on Main Street). There also was a silent auction that raised some needed funds for the museum as well.

Our next event happens tomorrow night -- the "Joe Hill" lecture. I'll be snapping some shots there, so stay tuned!

I Am a Mighty Geek

From June 2010

How big of a geek am I? Well, the answer to that question is directly tied to that pile of dirt.

I brushed that dirt out of the folds and crevasses of two particularly dirty mining diaries from the 1940s. What makes me a geek is that once I started seeing sparkly bits (potentially silver) and small splinters of wood, I considered saving that pile of dirt. I thought of the authenticity of the diaries -- the authors wrote their work descriptions while they were in the mines. This is THEIR dirt.

We didn't keep the dirt. However, we have the diaries.

From June 2010

From June 2010

I found the diaries to be particularly interesting because in addition to the work descriptions, the day-shift authors wrote notes to the night-shift authors, and vice versa. In one of the diaries (the more recent one), the men called each other by name in their notes. While they were writing to each other about issues, conditions, tools, and other topics, I could tell that they shared a friendship of sorts. They said "Please," which says a lot. You won't find "Please" in the other diary.

From June 2010

From June 2010

The mining collection I'm processing also includes two other ledgers, but they reveal entirely different information. One documents stockholder information such as names, addresses, number of shares, prices paid, and dividends paid. The other ledger is a brief look into miners' rates of pay, their positions, they days they worked, and any deductions from their pay.

I've also been examining what appear to be the files of the company president. My survey is at the very beginning, so I'm waiting to develop a solid opinion, but I can safely say that this gentleman was very interested in management theory. He kept lots of clippings from magazines, newsletters, and newspapers on the topic.

The more I dig, the more I want to dig deeper. And that's another reason why I'm a mighty geek.

Catching Up -- Great Thrift, the Mayflower/New Park Collection, Museum Doings, and Pride in SLC

From June 2010

Great thrift
To prepare for working with the very dirty (real dirt, not naughty dirt) collection below, I visited a number of thrift stores in the Salt Lake City area. The best ones were the DIs (Deseret Industries). Nope, that's not a typo. These very clean, organized, and super-cheap thrift stores run by the LDS folks. Speaking of clean, I cleaned up with $5 and $3 jeans and a couple of $5 shirts. Can't beat it with a stick!

The Mayflower/New Park Mining Company Collection

From June 2010

Here's where it started for me, well, a portion of it started here. Some of it started below:

From June 2010

What you're not seeing is the 1/4 in. of dirt and dust covering all of it.

From June 2010

It's also hard to see how very interesting this collection of mining company records is. It's full of canceled checks (with corresponding duplicates and some triplicates), vouchers, union news, stockholder information, personnel records, and more from between 1927-1963.

From June 2010

Some of the records were not in any boxes, stacked loosely (and dustily) on shelves. But we (the History Chicks and I) lightly brushed loose as much dirt and dust as we could outside the storage facility and packed up a truck full of boxes.

From June 2010

We moved the truckload of records from a suburb of Salt Lake City to another (new, very clean, and climate controlled) storage facility down the highway from Park City.

From June 2010

Since the move, we've been sorting through the records -- some packed into small file drawers in very haphazard ways, and some very tidily filed in alphabetical (mostly) order.

From June 2010

We have a lot of work to do, arranging this collection and re-ordering the records that were seemingly shoved in a box or drawer without logic. Describing it all should be fun, I think, because there's just so much meaty stuff -- from the records on the military men who were sent to work in the mines to the mine surveys.

From June 2010

Some of the adventure will take place in the storage facility, and some will happen in a processing area within the archives of the museum. At the moment, though, we're waiting for some much-needed supplies to arrive. In the meantime, I'll be working my way through Past Perfect, creating the framework for the digital descriptions. Frankly, I think there's no better way to learn a new program than by putting it to practical use while keeping the manual open in front of me.

From June 2010

That's the view as I drive back to the museum from the storage facility. I had just taken the photo right as the light turned -- no, I wasn't driving and taking pictures at the same time.

Museum Doings

From June 2010

In preparation for next Saturday's Park City Historic Home Tours, the museum folks (volunteers and staff) tie ceremonial ribbons around historical homes around town. I walked with a fellow History Chick up one of the streets with quite a few historical homes (some even in the booklet I helped prepare for this year's tour), tying the purple and gold ribbons around posts so that the folks taking the tour could find the homes easily.

From June 2010

I'm pretty excited to see some of the homes (and businesses) that will be open to tour-takers on the 26th. While some of the houses are in rough shape, the open ones have been updated and/or restored since they were originally built in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

From June 2010

Tonight, the Castillos came to sing Mexican ballads and folk songs (as well as some classic American songs) and talk to museum visitors about their lives. Visitors asked them questions, and the Castillos graciously answered all the questions.

Pride in SLC

From June 2010

I wish I had taken more and better photos of Pride weekend in Salt Lake City. But, it was good just to be a part of the experience. It was bittersweet, though, because being there alone really made me miss Thom, Rosie, and Bo -- all of whom would have had a good time at the festival. SLC makes quite a big deal of the thing with a weekend-long celebration -- loads of live music, a big parade, marches, rallies, and more.

So, that's my update for the first half of June. Hopefully, I'll have another one before the end of the month.