Grant Will Fund Historic Areas Survey

is famous for its rich history, and a recent financial boost may contribute to an effort to make it even more so.

A $20,000 grant has been awarded to the city to fund a continuing effort to catalogue historic buildings in the area. The money, a joint award from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the National Park Service, will support a survey of structures in the Midtown and Commons areas.

An informational meeting is set for May 16 at 6:30 p.m. in the chambers to answer questions from residents and speak to them about the impact of the funds.

“We’re holding this public meeting with property owners to make them aware of what we are doing,” said Brenda Rubach, the city’s preservation planner. “Then, when we finish each phase of the survey, we’ll have another public meeting to let them know of our results.”

The hoped for result will be another step toward the inclusion of additional areas as districts on the National Register of Historic Places. Two parts of the city–Main Street and Frenchtown--are already included in the document, Rubach said. Ten individual edifices also appear on the list.

The most recent grant will fund a survey of 190 buildings, the second leg of a four-phase project that could last for as long as five years, Rubach said. A similar grant last year supported the cataloguing of 160 buildings in the Midtown and Commons areas in the initial phase. Almost 450 more buildings are set to be examined in the third and fourth installments of the initiative, which will include architectural descriptions, historical research and photographs.

“Our goal is to identify all buildings that could be individually eligible for the national register or would identify the boundaries of potential national register districts,” Rubach said.

The National Park Service says a national district has a significant concentration of sites or buildings that are united historically by plan or development.

Such a designation would require an application to state historic preservation officials before being forwarded to the federal level. To be named historic, an individual structure must be more than 50 years old, retain its historic integrity and have an association with a significant person, group or event.

Should it occur, an area’s inclusion on the list could create a number of benefits for St. Charles.

“It’s an honor,” said Rubach. “It provides national recognition of the value of Missouri’s history and its historic properties. It’s also often cited in travel literature and tourism promotions. It presents a clear advantage in the desirability of the place.”

That can also have financial benefits as well.

“Heritage tourism is a big industry, and a lot of people who travel really look to see what areas have national register listings. And a lot of times that helps them decide where to visit,” she said.

Individuals can also reap rewards from such designations.

“Property owners can qualify for historic tax credits,” Rubach said. “There’s a federal tax credit available for income-producing buildings, and there is a state tax credit available for both homeowners and income-producing properties.”

Penny Pitman, who has been restoring historic buildings in the area for 35 years, has sometimes made use of those credits. 

“I’ve used them on some projects and not on others, but some of the bigger ones I suspect wouldn’t have gotten done if those credits weren’t available,” she said.

The credits not only help make renovations financially feasible, said Pitman, they also encourage owners to preserve the integrity of structures by providing guidelines for eligibility. She said the credits have helped keep areas such as historic Main Street looking as they do.

“If you want to take advantage of the tax credits, one of the criteria is that you have to keep the building in the same architectural style in which it was built using as much of the same materials as you could,” she said.

After Midtown and the Commons areas are surveyed, the city doesn’t plan to stop there.

“When we get the survey and national register nomination, then we’re going to move on to other places like the area around Lindenwood and areas that are south of First Capitol Drive. Other than Main Street, nothing’s been listed there and there really are quite a few significant historic buildings,” Rubach said.

Settled in the 18th century, St. Charles includes six locally designated historic districts containing more than 3,000 structures.