Tag Archives: beautiful house award

Heritage Stewardship Awards – great

We are still enjoying thinking about how much fun yesterday was at the Hunter Welcome Center. Bruce Shackelford, our keynote speaker, gave a fascinating look at the market for collectibles from the appraiser’s point of view. That includes some hilarious observations about his work as a guest appraiser for the popular PBS television series, “Antiques Roadshow.” Bruce went on to give some sage advice about the cultural value of historic preservation. We’re grateful for Bruce coming back to Abilene.

Cindy Deegan spoke some poignant words in her acceptance of the $700 first place prize for the Deegan’s home at 302 Riverside Dr. The house was vacant for more than four years before the Deegans adopted it and went to work. Sons Robert and John helped, often driving in from Austin. “We love broken things,” Cindy said. See the winning houses here.

Don’t miss next year, with another set of interesting homes. It will be Tuesday, May 3, 2011.

What’s the Beautiful House Award? What’s the Benefit to Abilene?

Initiated in 2009, the Beautiful House Award recognizes homeowners who have made improvements to their homes in a historically compatible manner.

The work can be either from the recent past or simply a recognition of good maintenance practices over a long period of time.

Logo-Sign-sm

The intent is to recognize families who have increased their home’s attractiveness and its contribution to the overall desirability of the neighborhood.

Today’s young families can rarely afford a new $150,000 “starter house” in one of the outlying neighborhoods. They need encouragement and examples of successful rehabilitations in older neighborhoods. This will contribute to a realization of the city’s infill goals, and it is more environmentally sustainable.

The result is more stable neighborhoods and increasing the ratio of homeowners to rental property in our historic neighborhoods.