Friederike Mittner talks the talk and walks the walk. The historic preservation planner for the city of West Palm Beach lives with her husband and two daughters in a 1939 bungalow in Lake Worth, where she was preservation officer before moving to West Palm Beach in 2005. She grew up in a 1924 home in Coral Gables until she came to Palm Beach County in 1998.
How did you get into the historic preservation business? I got my masters in preservation (Master of Science in Architectural Studies from the University of Florida) after I realized historic buildings just have such a great story to tell and they’re much more authentic and interesting to me than modern architecture.
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Are there incentives? For private homes, we have an ad velorem tax program, where the increase in the property value is not taxed for a period of 10 years. That also works for commercial properties. And commercial properties can also participate in the federal tax credit program.
![Dr. W. H. Cotton’s ode: “Oh, My Lake Worth, Florida!” [circa 1920].](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yhHyCn84ZIQ/WezjlEL-0tI/AAAAAAAAPZ4/CzkhriK6zpEJJ3d9Je1495d49gIhnMlxACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/LakeWorthPioneers.JPG)
