Preservation backer joins national board

Paul W. Mann, a longtime advocate of historic preservation in Spokane, has been named to the board of advisers for the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Mann will become one of three representatives on the board from Washington.

He replaces Joanne Moyer, who served the maximum of nine years on the board.

Mann’s appointment comes as Spokane prepares to host the trust’s National Preservation Conference in 2012.

He said that between 2,000 and 2,500 preservation advocates from around the country will come to Spokane for the conference and take the opportunity to see the city’s rich history and its strong preservation ethic.

“We are hoping to build on this,” said Mann, who is working with a pair of local committees to host the event.

Linda Yeomans, a historic preservation consultant, said Mann was a key player in bringing the conference to Spokane.

Mann is a past president of the Friends of the Moore-Turner Heritage Gardens and has opened his Jasper-Nuzum House, a Tudor-style home at 503 W. Sumner Ave., to historic tours on a number of occasions.

Mann recently hosted concerts in his home by Allegro.

The house is a contributing property in the Marycliff-Cliff Park National Historic District.

Mann is moving ahead with an effort to list the home separately on the Spokane Register of Historic Places, Yeomans said.

He is director and president of the Children’s Ark in Spokane, an early intervention program for at-risk infants and family members.