The city of Cottonwood hosted its second annual Historic Home and Building Tour on Nov. 14, an opportunity to let people get a look at some of the oldest structures in the area.
The program grew compared with its inaugural year, said Ryan Bigelow, a member of the Cottonwood Historic Preservation Commission.
“We’re really proud of a lot of improvements,” Bigelow said.
The attendance for the six-hour event was around 113, Bigelow said, an increase of nearly 50 percent over the 2014 event. The visitors were also all over 55 years of age and some came from as far away as Flagstaff or the Phoenix area.
This year’s tour included four homes, five other historic buildings and the Cottonwood Ditch, a feature that Bigelow said was “unique and well-received.”
The city’s Jail Trail was also added to this year’s tour, the trail that lead from the old jail in Old Town, now a tea room, down to the Verde River.
The homes in the tour were within a two-mile area around Old Town.
Bigelow said that the commission also surveyed nearly 70 percent of those in attendance in order to get some feedback on the tour’s success and to look towards planning for the future.
Bigelow said that 2015’s tour raised around $1,500.
Along with matching funds from the city of Cottonwood, Bigelow said that there is around $6,000 available for historic preservation efforts.
In order to qualify for the funds, buildings have to be identified and landmarked as historic; some of the buildings marked as such include the old town jail, the Cottonwood Civic Center and the old Garrison garage.
Tim Elinski, a historic preservation commission member and a city councilman, said that the money was being put toward a program to provide grant funding for homeowners who want to try and work on preserving the exteriors of their buildings.
The Cottonwood Historic Preservation Commission was established by the City Council in 2010 with the goal of looking at the identification, evaluation, protection, preservation and enhancement of historic properties that have significance for the city of Cottonwood.
Elinski said the commission was formed in large part because of “heartbreak” when an old property had to be demolished.
“We want to promote and preserve history and provide economic development,” Elinski said. “We had no experience in planning a home tour and after things started to get more complicated, we decided to jump in and do it.”
The proceeds from the 2014 tour were set aside to eventually be spent on the project to restore the Cottonwood Civic Center, an anchor of Old Town.
Elinski said that the tour would add more homes around the city and eventually have a cap placed on the number.
Elinski also said that organizers were hoping to work with the Cottonwood Area Transit system in order to get people from point A to point B.
“We’re trying hard to promote our community’s history,” Elinski said. “We’re only looking towards the future.”
