2026 SHPO Awards
The Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) announces 2026 Annual Awards for Outstanding Achievements in Historic Preservation. This awards program recognizes persons, organizations, and projects that have achieved distinction in the field of historic preservation. Award recipients will be recognized during the Opening Plenary at the PLACES Conference October 6 at 1pm in Ellensburg, WA.
2026 Award Recipients
Save Our Station — Outstanding Stewardship Award
Cheney Depot, Cheney
Save Our Station (SOS) is being recognized for their extraordinary efforts to save Cheney’s historic Northern Pacific Depot from demolition. Beginning in 2013, SOS organized a community campaign to preserve the depot and ultimately relocate it near downtown Cheney. The building was moved in one piece and rehabilitated with extensive volunteer participation. Today, the depot once again serves as an active community gathering place, with businesses and restaurants occupying its historic spaces.
Christa Harvey — Valerie Sivinski Award for Outstanding Rehabilitation
Bowker House, Lacey
Christa Harvey is being recognized for her determination to rehabilitate the Bowker House, one of Lacey’s important historic properties. Built around 1892 by George and Lucinda Bowker, the house was Lacey’s first property listed on the local historic register. When Harvey purchased the property in 2019, it lacked plumbing, electricity, heat, insulation, and numerous windows, doors, and walls. Through a challenging rehabilitation process, Harvey restored historic features while adapting the property for contemporary use. The project demonstrates how persistence and thoughtful rehabilitation can return a severely deteriorated historic building to productive use.
Northern Pacific Railway Museum — Special Achievement Award
Locomotive 1364
The Northern Pacific Railway Museum is being recognized for a remarkable 32-year effort to restore Northern Pacific Railway Locomotive 1364. Acquired in 1994 as a derelict steam locomotive, 1364 was painstakingly rebuilt by museum volunteers. Today, it is the only operational mainline steam locomotive from the Northern Pacific Railway. The restoration preserves an important piece of Washington’s railroad heritage while allowing visitors to experience the technology, craftsmanship, and history of the railroad era firsthand.
Steve and Tresa Schmautz — Valerie Sivinski Award for Outstanding Rehabilitation
Hotel Collins, Spokane
Steve and Tresa Schmautz are being recognized for their rehabilitation of the historic Hotel Collins. The rehabilitation of the Hotel Collins transformed a historic downtown building into 42 deeply affordable homes, providing residents experiencing homelessness and housing instability with a stable place to live alongside the services and support needed to move toward greater stability. Employment and social support services provided by Dignified Workday are located on the ground floor, creating a model in which housing and opportunity are thoughtfully integrated within a single building.
The project also demonstrates the value of historic preservation as a tool for enabling critical community investments. Through the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credit program, the project recouped 20 percent of its project budget, helping make a respectful rehabilitation of the historic building financially viable. The result is an exemplary rehabilitation that demonstrates how historic preservation can contribute meaningfully to addressing housing instability. The Collins Hotel creates more than a place to live—it provides a foundation for stability, dignity, and opportunity while offering a compelling model for reinvesting in Spokane’s historic buildings.
American Legion Post 125 and Community Volunteers — Cemetery Preservation Award
Granite Falls American Legion Cemetery
American Legion Post 125 and community volunteers are being recognized for a remarkable effort to restore and document the Granite Falls American Legion cemetery. Over a two-year period, volunteers contributed hundreds of hours to clearing debris, cleaning and restoring gravestones, improving landscaping, straightening markers, and making the cemetery more accessible. More than 1,600 interment records were also documented and connected to physical grave locations, creating a new resource for visitors and researchers. The project not only improved the cemetery but also helped reenergize community participation in the American Legion.
Tacoma Public Schools — Valerie Sivinski Award for Outstanding Rehabilitation
Oakland Secondary School, Tacoma
Tacoma Public Schools is being recognized for the rehabilitation of Oakland Secondary School, a historic Tacoma landmark originally constructed in 1912. The project preserved the building’s historic exterior while comprehensively modernizing the interior for contemporary educational needs. Work included seismic reinforcement, restoration of the original brick and stone exterior, and rehabilitation of approximately 100 historic wood-framed windows. The renewed campus also includes a health clinic and daycare, demonstrating how historic schools can be adapted to serve students and families today while preserving their architectural and community significance.
Keith Phillips — Career Achievement Award
Master Stone Carver, Tenino
Keith Phillips is being recognized for more than four decades of work preserving Washington’s traditional stone-carving craft. Phillips helped revive the historic Tenino sandstone carving tradition after arriving in the community in the 1980s, apprenticing under master stone carver Lorenz “Larry” Scheel. His work can be found on important historic landmarks throughout Washington, including buildings on the Washington State Capitol Campus, Stadium High School, museums, churches, and lighthouses. Perhaps most significantly, Phillips has passed his knowledge to a new generation through apprenticeships, workshops, demonstrations, and the Tenino Stone Carvers Guild. His career demonstrates that preserving historic places also means preserving the traditional skills needed to care for them.
The Historic Trust Docent Team, Vancouver — Historic Preservation Education Award
The Historic Trust’s 17 volunteer docents are being recognized for their exceptional contribution to preservation education. In 2025, the team contributed more than 3,000 hours leading tours and supporting programs at Providence Academy and Marshall House in Vancouver. Their work connects visitors with the histories of these important sites while helping the public understand the people and communities behind the buildings. Through regular tours, special events, Preservation Month activities, and community outreach, the docents demonstrate the important role volunteers play in bringing historic places to life.
Jeffrey Karl Ochsner — Career Achievement Award
Architectural Historian and Educator, University of Washington
Jeffrey Karl Ochsner is being recognized for nearly four decades of teaching, scholarship, and mentorship in architecture and historic preservation. Since joining the University of Washington College of Built Environments in 1988, Ochsner has introduced generations of students to architectural history, preservation, and urban design. His scholarship includes extensive research on the architecture of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, and his work as editor of Shaping Seattle Architecture has made an important contribution to understanding the region’s architectural history. His former students have gone on to become architects, planners, preservation professionals, public officials, and community leaders, extending his influence throughout Washington and beyond.
Guy Moura — Posthumous Career Achievement Award
Guy Moura is being recognized for his 40-year career contributing Washington’s cultural heritage, archaeology, Native American Tribal education, and historic preservation.
Guy was the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. He was long associated with the Colville working in a variety of positions with the tribes’ Historic and Archaeology Program in Nespelem.
Guy worked as a professional archaeologist beginning in Maine and across Washington state in precontact and historic archaeological sites. He is the author of cultural resource reports spanning the state and was a critical voice for the protection of Native American cultural places. Guy endeavors as the Tribal Historic Preservation Officer were significant in the success of tribal efforts along the upper Columbia River and the protection of cultural resources associated with the Chief Joseph and Lake Roosevelt cultural resource protection efforts.
Guy's lifetime commitment to Washington’s heritage is a stellar example of professional and personal commitment and he is profoundly missed.
Questions? Contact: kim.gant@dahp.wa.gov
