Sedona’s 14th historic building could be designated a landmark Wednesday, Feb. 7, thanks to incentives offered by grant money.

Sedona’s 14th historic building could be designated a landmark Wednesday, Feb. 7, thanks to incentives offered by grant money.

Susan Hawley’s home, located next to the Celeste Azul Estados subdivision, goes before the city of Sedona’s Historic Preservation Commis-sion for the designation.
Hawley is one of three property owners who received $10,600 in grant money from the commission’s Small Grants Program.

The program was developed to encourage owners of historic properties to maintain their structures and entice them to have them designated as historic.
Landmarked structures of those pursuing landmark status are more likely to receive grant money.

“This program actually got people interested in pursuing that [landmark designation],” Kathy Levin said. Levin is the city’s associate planner for community planning.

Hawley’s home, the DaVoss-Hawley House, is located on property originally part of the Frank Gibson homestead established on Nov. 15, 1935.

The home’s actual date of construction is uncertain.

City Historic Resource Survey records state that house was constructed in 1937 but one of the contractors remembers differently. Will Steele, who helped build the house, remembers finishing it in the late 1940s when electricity became available.
Kenneth DaVoss, from Las Vegas, bought the house soon after it was built and sold it to Wes and Gerry Roberts in the 1950s.

Hawley moved into the home with her family in July 1964. Hawley’s parents moved her and her two siblings from Connecticut to the home.

Ownership of the home reverted to Hawley and her brother in 1998 upon the death of their parents. Hawley has lived in the house since.

Hawley was unavailable for comment prior to press time.

Windows and wood siding on Hawley’s home will be replaced using the grant money.

If designated a historic landmark by the commission, the home’s exterior cannot be changed even if it’s sold.

Saddle Rock Ranch Bed and Breakfast, built in the 1940s, and Unity Church of Sedona, also built in the 1940s, received grant money as well.

Neither of these property owners are pursuing landmark status at this time.

Sedona City Council gave the commission $15,000 at the beginning of the fiscal year to start the grant program.

The commission plans to conduct a second grant cycle before the end of the fiscal year to award the remaining $4,000.

Grant money must be used to improve the exterior of a structure.

Eligibility for grant money is determined by four factors:

•  Work must meet the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s standards for treatment of historic structures.
•  Proposed work must include critical exterior improvements, maintenance or repair improving the visual appearance.
•  The property is landmarked or in the process of becoming landmarked.
•  The applicant must match grant funds by at least 50 percent.

This is the first year of the commission’s grant program and its continuation depends on council’s willingness to again provide funding.