Preserving the Hostess City

Historic Preservation Month is celebrated all across the country and this year, the Savannah community will have plenty of unique events to participate in an observance of Historic Preservation Month 2021.

Led by Historic Savannah Foundation, community organizations partnered to establish events throughout May to celebrate the art of preservation and highlight its significant impact on the past, present and future of Savannah.

Preservation month events kicked off Tuesday with a media call held in conjunction with Visit Savannah and the Tourism Leadership Council. Throughout the celebratory month, HSF is teaming with Ethos Preservation, Savannah Bike Tours, and more.

Ethos is helping to launch a Coastal Historic Survey project involving a team of historic preservation consultants and architectural historians who will survey unincorporated areas along the Georgia coast, east of Interstate-95 to help identify historic resources in their community. Also, Savannah Bike Tours announced it will donate $1 from each tour booked during the month of May to HSF.

On May 13, HSF’s Annual Preservation Awards will be celebrated virtually with an online ceremony. The event will feature remarks by Visit Savannah President Joe Marinelli, Tourism Leadership Council President & CEO Michael Owens, Josh Brooks, Historic Savannah Foundation Board Chair, Historic Savannah Foundation President and CEO Sue Adler, and Davenport House Museum Director Jamie Credle.

As the celebration commences, HSF will provide updates on their latest project. President and CEO of Historic Savannah Foundation, Susan Adler said, in December 2020, HSF broke ground on a capital campaign that they had been raising money for about five years, and that campaign has three pieces to it. “One [piece] is, on Broughton Street, there’s the Kennedy Pharmacy, which we own, and we are restoring that historic building and what will go on the bottom floor there is the Davenport Historic House building’s gift shop,” Adler said. “We will move the staff upstairs of the pharmacy. This will free up the ground floor of the Davenport House which will house an urban slave exhibit.”

In addition to restoring the Kennedy Pharmacy to house the Davenport House Museum gift shop and staff and replacing the vacant space with an urban slave exhibit on the bottom floor Davenport House Museum, a new building called Murray C. Perlman & Wayne C. Spear Center is under construction behind the Kennedy building which will be for events, meetings, and community space.

Some additional events taking place throughout Historic Preservation Month include the Springtime Tea and the Early Bird’s Preservation Walking Tour of the Landmark Historic District’s East Side with the Davenport House Museum. Adler said that establishing the events for the community to enjoy during preservation month was a collaborative effort. “We believe educating people about our history is so important,” Adler said. “We all have to work together. It’s the collaboration that makes an institution strong and vital and important.”

Visit myhsf.org or call 912-233-7787 for information about Preservation Month events or activities.