Neighborhood boosters, aided by reps from the Weber County Heritage Foundation and a contingent of volunteers from the Ogden company MarketStar, fanned out Thursday and installed 17 signs marking some of the older, historic homes in the area.

The aim is to bolster awareness among motorists and pedestrians who travel the zone “that this is the oldest neighborhood in Weber County,” said Katie Nelson, executive director of the heritage foundation. Without such markers “you have no idea that this place is so significant.”

The markers were placed on homes scattered from the 300 block of Second Street east across Harrison Boulevard. That’s the heart of the old Bingham Fort area, originally settled by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pioneers in the mid-1800s.

The 17 homes were built between 1863 and the 1920s. Some may not appear historic because of changes made over the years, she said, but they recall the area’s roots.

“Together, collectively, they tell the story of the place and they tell the story of Weber County,” Nelson said.

Neighborhood boosters lobbied for an honorary name to part of West Second Street, initially Bingham Fort Lane. That name drew fire from some because it didn’t factor the Native American history of the area. Instead, officials settled last month on Chief Little Soldier Way, a named that comes from a noted Northwestern Shoshone chief. New street signs with the honorary name have already been installed, placed above Second Street signs.

Now come the 17 other signs, affixed to posts placed in the front yards of the homes. They are brown, and each indicates the year the homes were built and contains historic information about each structure.

The sign in front of Anna Keogh’s home says the structure was built in 1925. It says the original owners provided milk for neighbors during the Great Depression and that World War II prisoners of war worked the fields behind the house.

“I’m thankful. I’m excited. It’s like a dream come true,” said Keogh, who helped with the honorary naming effort and has been a key motor in efforts to recall the area’s history.

She said there were three waves of newcomers to the area between the mid-1800s and the Great Depression. The first was the arrival of the LDS pioneers starting around the mid-1800s followed by influx of Italian immigrants after the Transcontinental Railroad was completed. The third phase occurred around the 1920s, during what she calls the “golden age of family farming,” when farming was perhaps at its strongest in the area, once rural but now residential.

The 17 homes don’t all meet requirements to formally be dubbed “historic,” Nelson said. The formal designation is sometimes beyond the reach of more modest homeowners, lacking the income necessary for required changes to get a historic designation.

Nevertheless, those who live in the neighborhood say it has a special energy.

“I love the history. I grew up with the history. I’m part of the history,” said Dave Montgomery. He lives in the area and is helping renovate one of the 17 homes that got a sign for his daughter.

Neighborhood boosters last week successfully lobbied against a rezone of part of the area to allow for construction of town homes, worried the change would alter the character of the zone. The issue came before the Ogden City Council on Aug. 17, when the body rejected the rezone request.