Korral Broschinsky
Research Industry Expert
Statewide, Utah
Korral Broschinsky
Preservation Documentation Resource
Active in preservation: 1995–present
The People Behind It
Korral Broschinsky, principal, Preservation Documentation Resource
At a Glance
Korral Broschinsky has spent more than three decades doing the work that makes everything else in preservation possible. Her surveys have given communities the evidence they need to make preservation-minded decisions. Her nominations have protected buildings that might otherwise have been overlooked, dismissed, or lost. Her support for property owners navigating tax credit programs and local government processes has translated research into real financial and protective outcomes. And her consistent presence across Utah from urban neighborhoods to small rural towns has helped ensure that the historic record reflects the full breadth of what this state has built and who has called it home.
The Story
Getting a single building listed on the National Register of Historic Places is a significant accomplishment. The process is lengthy and demanding, requiring meticulous research, command of a complex nomination form, and the ability to present a compelling case. Doing it once is notable. Doing it dozens of times across building types as varied as a carousel at Lagoon, a diesel power plant in Murray, a Modernist residence in Salt Lake City, and an American Legion Hall in Fillmore is the work of someone who has made the National Register her life's work.
That person is Korral Broschinsky, arguably one of Utah's most prolific and successful National Register consultants.
With a master's degree in architectural history from the University of Utah's School of Architecture, Korral has worked in historic preservation since 1995 and established her own consulting firm, Preservation Documentation Resource, in 1999. Her work has taken her to communities across the state, from small rural towns to urban neighborhoods, building a body of work that spans individual properties, historic surveys, and full district nominations.
Her connection to Murray runs particularly deep. Between 2006 and 2012, her firm surveyed nearly 5,000 buildings there for the Utah State Historic Preservation Office's database of historic resources, a foundational body of documentary work that established the evidentiary basis for preservation decisions across the entire city. Korral has authored two books on Murray history: Images of America: Murray and the Centennial History of the Murray City School District. She served two terms on the Murray City Historic Preservation Advisory Board and now brings that accumulated knowledge to the Historic Murray First Foundation, applying decades of research to ongoing preservation advocacy in the community where she grew up.
Preservation Work
Historic surveys are where much of preservation's foundational work begins, and that work rarely receives public recognition. Before a building can be nominated, before a district can be established, before a community can make the case for protecting what it has, someone has to go out and document what exists: assessing buildings, gathering historical information, analyzing patterns of development, and creating the baseline record from which all subsequent preservation work flows. Korral has conducted surveys across Utah that have established exactly this kind of foundation, giving communities the documentary evidence they need to pursue nominations, establish districts, and make preservation-minded decisions about their built environment.
From that foundation, her work extends in multiple directions. Her inventory of successful National Register nominations reflects the full range of Utah's built environment: the Ford Motor Company Service Building, the Apache Motel in Moab, the Second Ward Chapel in Sandy, the Hendricks Confectionery Building in Richmond, the Murray City Diesel Power Plant, rustic cabins, historic homes, and much more. Each nomination represents not just a form filed but a place documented, a story shared, and a community given a stronger foundation for preservation.
Her work does not stop at the nomination itself. Korral has provided direct support to property owners seeking to access state and federal historic tax credit programs, helping owners understand what their properties qualify for and how to navigate the process of securing funding that makes rehabilitation financially viable. She has also written letters of support for property owners addressing issues with local governments, putting her professional standing and knowledge of preservation standards to work as an advocate when historic places face pressure or scrutiny.
The nomination process demands a range of skills that few people possess in combination: painstaking archival research, command of a technical and demanding nomination form, and the ability to present a compelling case to an audience, weighing it against competing priorities. Korral does all of this, and she does it well.
Why It Matters
The outcomes of Korral's career are concrete and lasting. For individual property owners, a National Register listing brings recognition, eligibility for tax credits, and measurably higher property values. For communities, historic district designations establish the rationale for preserving neighborhood identity through incentives and policy. For the field itself, the surveys, nominations, and advocacy work she has produced over more than three decades have built the evidentiary record that makes preservation possible, property by property, district by district, across the state of Utah.