Buying the 1899 Brick Home — Putting Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
When the house next door — a 1899 brick building — went up for sale and out-of-state investors were likely to demolish it for duplexes, Paige and her husband bought it. 'If we want to preserve old Lehi, we have to put our money where our mouth is.' Weekends refinishing floors and repointing brick is the price of that commitment.
Key Lessons
- • Talk about preservation is cheap; purchasing the building is the real act
- • Downtown Lehi's walkability and historic character are worth protecting as intentional choices
Community Connections
Stories, people, and ideas that connect across the archive — ranked by shared themes, guests, places, and topics.
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Related People
(4)Paige Albrecht
Lehi City Council Member, Attorney, Community Advocate
Lara Bangerter
Manager, Lehi Historical Society & Archives
Phil Hanks
Grandson of Ephraim Hanks · Mission President (Samoa) · Temple President (Samoa) · Church Education System Leader · Stake President · Senior Missionary (Ukraine, Freiburg) · Lehi Resident
Andy Hadfield
Head Football Coach, Lehi High School · Business Owner · Lifelong Lehi Resident
Related Stories
(4)Buying the 1899 Brick Home — Preserving Old Lehi with Personal Sacrifice
Paige Albrecht
Baby Land — A Place of Refuge Most People Don't Know About
Paige Albrecht
A Canceled Softball League and the Birth of a Public Servant
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Trees Planted for People They'd Never Meet — Wines Park and Generational Sacrifice
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Related Quotes
(4)"If you want to control what happens on a piece of property, the very best way is to own it yourself."
— Paige Albrecht
"I really wanted my kids to have a hometown."
— Paige Albrecht
"Every life should be documented."
— Lara Bangerter
"That's when you know you live in a community that cares — even when nobody's watching."
— Paige Albrecht
Related Themes
(4)Historic Preservation
The effort to keep Lehi's brick homes, historic buildings, walkable downtown, and generational landmarks alive — sometimes through personal financial sacrifice, sometimes through a well-placed brick in a new wall.
Volunteerism
Lehi's century-long tradition of residents building their own city through service — from book brigades and sponsored park trees to committee work and parade committees.
Family Legacy
The stories of families who planted roots in Lehi across generations — the ones who built the traditions, the parks, the businesses, and the sense of belonging that others now enjoy.
Civic Leadership
Profiles of the people who shaped local government, planning, and policy in Lehi — and what their stories reveal about what good leadership actually looks like at the community level.
More from Paige Albrecht
Paige Albrecht
Trees at Wines Park — Planted for People They'd Never Meet
Reading old issues of the Lehi Free Press, Paige discovered that a hundred years ago, families could sponsor a tree at Wines Park for a dollar or two. Not Christmas trees — the actual trees now standing in the park. Families who didn't have much gave what they could, knowing the trees would outlast them. Many of their descendants still live in Lehi.
Paige Albrecht
A Canceled Softball League and the Birth of a Public Servant
Paige bought her husband a softball team for Christmas — wrote a poem and gave him his own roster. For a few years it was wonderful. Then the league was canceled. She researched, went to city council, stood at the podium, and left feeling defeated. But she stayed for the whole meeting. And the next. For eight years, before holding any office, she attended city council and Planning Commission meetings every week — simply because the process fascinated her.
Paige Albrecht
Baby Land — A Place of Refuge Most People Don't Know About
Asked what she was most proud of in ten years of public service, Paige bypassed the fire stations and police building. She talked about Baby Land — a specially designated section of the Lehi Cemetery for infants, with a beautiful statue. Her nephew and his wife lost their baby and found it there. 'That's when you know you live in a community that cares — even when nobody's watching.'
Related Stories
Charlene Freestone
Six Children, One Minivan, and a Wooden Box
At a child safety checkpoint in 2021, Charlene helped a family with six children in a seven-seat minivan. One child was on a secured wooden box. The family had daisy-chained lap extender belts through the outer car seats. Charlene and another technician spent over an hour arranging new seats, only to learn the mother was pregnant and needed room for a newborn. They had to start over completely. The experience became a career turning point.
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I'm Back, But This Time I'm Helping
Charlene's son was born with needs requiring surgeries. A nurse with child passenger safety training helped her family during the car seat oxygen test. Exactly 12 years later, Charlene began working with Intermountain at Utah Valley Hospital — on the exact anniversary of her son's discharge. Looking at her badge, she thought: 'I'm back, but this time I'm helping people here.'
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Grief Turned Into Safety Work
Charlene mentions a man in his 50s who became involved in child passenger safety after losing his daughter in a car accident. He used his grief constructively, becoming a volunteer for Zero Fatalities and eventually a certified CPST. He's also trilingual, making him an invaluable resource for families facing language barriers.