Butte Preservation Project a Finalist for Funding and Needs Your Vote

The Main Street Program at the Montana Department of Commerce is excited to announce that Butte has been awarded a place in the National Partners in Preservation competition.

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To vote and help preserve and restore these unique reminders of Butte’s diverse history visit http://www.voteyourmainstreet.org/butte or text "MAINSTREET" to 52886 and vote each day through October 26.

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Butte’s Wah Chong Tai Mercantile and Mai Wah Noodle Parlor were nominated by Commerce and will compete with 19 other projects across the nation for a share of $2 million in American Express funding for preservation projects. Montana’s only Partners in Preservation project this year, the Mai Wah and Wah Chong Tai buildings represent Butte’s once thriving Chinatown of nearly 2,500 Asian residents, which is now maintained by the Mai Wah Society as a museum to honor and preserve the Chinese heritage in southwestern Montana.

From now through October 26, Montanans can vote every day for up to five historic preservation projects that they deem to be the best and most worthy of support. Top vote getters will receive up to $150,000 in funding to support a bricks and mortar project to preserve and restore historic buildings in their Main Street community.

"Projects like this are so important to downtown revitalization efforts in our Main Street communities across the state," Montana Department of Commerce Director Pam Haxby-Cote said. "So, let’s get online and vote for this amazing historic preservation project."

Partners in Preservation is an initiative created by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express to engage the public in preserving and increasing awareness of America’s historic places and their role in sustaining local communities.

To vote and help preserve and restore these unique reminders of Butte’s diverse history visit http://www.voteyourmainstreet.org/butte or text "MAINSTREET" to 52886 and vote each day through October 26.

http://commerce.mt.gov/News/PressReleases/butte-preservation-project-a-finalist-for-funding-and-needs-your-vote