Commission finds former Flagstaff City Hall eligible; requires documentation, interpretive mitigation and review with Indigenous Commission

The Heritage Preservation Commission voted July 16 to accept a revised Phase 1 cultural resource study for the former Flagstaff City Hall at 19 West Birch Avenue and to require further documentation and mitigation before any demolition could proceed.

Cornerstone Environmental, the consultant hired to re-evaluate the property, told the commission its follow-up research tied the building to local social and government history and to events connected with the American Indian Movement. "Historic preservation is an iterative and collaborative process of research, field work, law and city code, and implementation with many varied stakeholders," said Caitlin Stewart, owner and director of Cornerstone Environmental. "This care is put into every project we work on."

The consultant recommended the property be considered significant under City of Flagstaff criterion B and National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) criterion A for associations with government and social history, and locally significant under City of Flagstaff criterion D for architecture. "Based off of that follow-up research and our reevaluation ... we do recommend the property significant under City Of…