Rail Corridor Awarded For Historic Preservation

The Rock Island Rail Corridor Authority of Jackson County was presented with the Graves/Hale Preservation Award for their work preserving and re-using the historic Rock Island Railroad Corridor.

The award was established by the Lee’s Summit Historic Preservation Commission in 2004 and is inspired by the dedicated efforts of Frank Graves and Don Hale. Kathy Smith, commission chairperson, presented the award to Jackson County Legislator Tony Miller during the Legislative meeting May 20, 2017.

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Jackson County Legislator Tony Miller accepts the Graves/Hale Preservation Award from Lee's Summit Historic Preservation Commission Chairperson Kathy Smith during a recent Legislative meeting.

Graves and Hale were enthusiastic local historians who were the first to publish books about the local history of Lee’s Summit.  In honor of their monumental work in historic preservation for Lee’s Summit, the Historic Preservation Commission presents an annual award to individuals and/or organizations that exemplify such contributions to historic preservation.

This award is presented to living individuals, teams, groups, agencies, firms and/or collective entities who have demonstrated, over an extended period of time, a commitment to interpreting, retaining and promoting the preservation and adaptive reuse of buildings, districts, structures and cultural landscapes in Lee's Summit.

Matt Davis, Project Coordinator, is grateful for the award. “We are doing some historic interoperation on different sites along the corridor, especially where there are unique landmarks or historical infrastructures,”

“We are very excited to showcase some of the history of Jackson County, including this wonderful, historic railroad corridor and preserve it for generations to come as a shared use path, a bicycle and pedestrian destination for people all across the state of Missouri and the country,” Davis said.