Spring City celebrates Heritage Day each year on the Saturday before Memorial Day, this year on May 24. Events include a tour of many of the town’s charming pioneer-era homes and buildings, built along and around Main Street.

Friends of Historic Spring City sponsor the event; an art and antique sale will be held this year at City Hall, since the Old Spring City School is under construction. A new event as of last year, Sneak Peek, will be repeated; visitors may come to preview art and antiques at City Hall from 5 to 9 p.m., Friday, May 23, before the main event at a nominal cost.

Friends of Historic Spring City are excited that construction in the Old School is underway and the goal of a beautiful community center and city offices will be much closer to reality by late summer. The new mayor and city council are determined to relocate the city offices to the Old School once the main floor is complete.

On the second floor, a large ballroom for receptions, community programs and art events is in the works. The Friends continue to raise funds for completing work on the Old School under the banner of “Preserving our past, restoring for the present, ensuring our future.” A Wall of Honor will grace the entryway of the building, with the names of donors who have made substantial contributions.

Spring City leads the way in historic preservation and restoration in Utah. The town was designated as a national historic district in the late 1970s, and since then over 50 buildings in town have been restored.

One home on the tour, the Baxter House, was saved from destruction last year, following a flood that nearly destroyed the house. It has been beautifully restored and Craig Paulsen will be honored with a Utah Heritage Award for leading the project. The lovely Main Street home would have been a sore loss and it is on the tour, among 20+ other buildings in town.

Tickets for the Saturday home tour are sold at city hall behind the Old School to the east and the Main Street Firehouse. A silent auction, called “At Squared,” is held at city hall, where patrons bid on one-foot square paintings done by well-known Spring City artists including Lee Bennion, Susan Gallacher, M’Lisa Paulsen, Doug Fryer, Kathleen Peterson, Cassandria Parsons, Lynn Farrar and many other Utah artists.

Another art item, the “Spring City Suite,” a collectors’ series of 10 hand-pressed prints by select artists, limited to 35 editions and preserved in an archival box is available for sale. Lee Bennion and Brian Kershisnik completed the ninth and 10th prints last year.

Additional artwork by well-known artists will be available for sale at city hall and in local galleries. Breakfast and lunch are served at the city bowery and provide a fundraiser for the local LDS Ward; coffee is available at city hall.

Spring City is just off Highway 89, between Mt. Pleasant and Ephraim. It may be sunny in Spring City while rainy on the Wasatch Front and the homes and art are lovely, whatever the weather.

Homes on the tour include Iver Peter Peterson Granary, current owner David Rosier; Lorenzo Aiken Gas Station, Scott Allred; John R Baxter Sr House, recently restored by Craig Paulsen, new owner Marian Rexes; Baxter Store, Shirley and Lanny Britsch.

Peter Mickelson House 1868, Lynn Farrar home, gallery; Reid H. Allred House, Doug and Joan Durfey; Lyceum Theater, now Victory Hall, Lawrence, Lana Gardner; Rasmus Justesen House, Susan Gallacher. Bishop’s Storehouse; 1905 Old City Hall, jail, now DUP Museum.

Soren Anderson House and Jock Jones Workshop, Bonnie and Jock Jones; William Osborne House, now Osborne Inn, owners Dane and Barbara Chapman; Niels Borresen House, Peter and Ingelise Goss;

Strate Garage now Spring City Arts Gallery; John Frantzen House, John Potter; Orson Hyde House, Bruce and Bonnie Barker; Alvin Allred/Arthur Johnson Store, now Horseshoe Mountain Pottery, Joe and Lee Bennion; Orson Hyde Office/Spring City School, Randal Lake; Spring City LDS Chapel, Simon P. Beck Cabin, Rick and Lynda Sentker; Old Fire Station, Stan and Gwen Soper, new construction built from beams of an old barn from Pennsylvania.