Hometown History Hunt contest featured inside on pages B4-B5
HOT SPRINGS – The annual Fall River Fourth of July Celebration will kick off in Hot Springs with the traditional July 3rd Street Dance this Friday night beginning at 7pm in Centennial Park. A full day of events will follow on Saturday, July 4th, beginning with the Firecracker Races, followed by a Downtown Parade, Community Picnics, a Car Show and the Firequacker Duck Race, all of which will lead up to the evening Fireworks Display beginning at dusk. (See full schedule of events on page A8).
In conjunction with America’s 250th celebration, the Fall River County Herald-Star and the local Save Our Sandstone (SOS) nonprofit organization are also conductinganewcontestcalled HOMETOWN HISTORY HUNT which celebrates Hot Springs’ historic downtown buildings. That contest can be found in the B-section center spread of this newspaper, where participants will share more than $1,000 in prizes provided by local businesses.
During Hot Springs’ building boom of the 1890s, builders quarried local pink, red, buff, and tan sandstone from nearby quarries, making sandstone the dominant material for many of the town’s important commercial, civic, and hotel buildings. Because of the availability of sandstone, Hot Springs is widely recognized as having one of the nation’s best-preserved and most concentrated collections of historic sandstone architecture.
“The Hometown History Hunt grew naturally out of Save Our Sandstone’s work on the Digital Historic Walking Tour,” stated SOS member Luke Broyles. “As we researched and documented Hot Springs’ historic sandstone buildings, we uncovered countless stories, architectural details, and pieces of local history that many people walk past every day without noticing. The contest was created as a fun way to encourage residents and visitors to explore downtown, look a little closer, and discover the history that’s all around them.”
The website HistoricHotSpringsSD. com, which SOS has created, details 36 of the town’s historic buildings, complete with info about when the structures were built, what businesses have called them home, where the sandstone was quarried, plus lots of other interesting information. The Hometown History Hunt showcases those 36 buildings and has participants trying to correctly identify them based on a series of creative clues.
Broyles said Save Our Sandstone was re-founded by Michael Sommer, Kara Hagen, Debra Johnston, Uriah Laullin, and himself, following the demolition of the Wesch-Oak building in 2021.
“That loss served as the catalyst for renewing the organization’s mission to preserve and promote Hot Springs’ unique sandstone heritage,” Broyles said. “While Kara later stepped away and Mike recently resigned, Debra and I have continued that mission with the support of our board, members, and volunteers. Today, Kimberly Alley serves as our Treasurer, following Uriah Laullin and Faye Baker. Our current focus is maintaining and expanding the Digital Historic Walking Tour, educating residents and visitors about our sandstone buildings, and helping property owners take advantage of historic preservation opportunities.
“As the organization grows, we hope to provide nonprofit grant pass-through services and, when funding allows, help property owners meet the matching-fund requirements that often prevent them from applying for state and federal preservation grants. Our goal is simple: preserve Hot Springs’ unique sandstone heritage and ensure these historic landmarks remain part of our community for generations to come.”