To complete our #PreservationMonth celebration, the last Preservation in Action email honors the importance of education to the preservation movement in Columbus.
Heritage education became an important component of Historic Columbus’ mission through the leadership of our second Executive Director, Patricia Jackson Howard. In addition to increasing school tours and programs, she created a book series called Our Town that would grow its impact within the school district over the next 25 years. Today, there have been over 35,000 copies of the books distributed to school age children. The books tell the story of Columbus’ early days and its important buildings through an introductory history, coloring book images, and Columbus’ architectural styles.
Learning about the history of our community for school-age children is a combination of in-school programs, tours of our house museums, the Our Town book series, and Box City Summer Art Camp.
This year, 1,000 third graders from 23 schools visited the oldest house in Columbus, The Walker-Peters-Langdon House and Garden, c. 1828. HCF staff also visited 15 schools and conducted in-school programs for 1,057 children. Historic Columbus also provides a variety of programs for early Columbus history – such as making butter, making bricks, and Native American history. Two other HCF house museums (the Rankin House, c. 1860, and the Log Cabin, c. 1800) are also available for tour. In addition, you can learn about the history of Coca-Cola and Dr. Pemberton through an exhibit at the Welcome Center on Front Avenue, thanks to our partnership with the CCVB.
Unfortunately, Box City had to be cancelled this summer. While we will miss seeing our campers, we are not leaving them high and dry! A new virtual Box City Contest has been developed for the month of June. Using your own arts and crafts supplies, each contestant will construct their own building to enter the competition. Throughout the competition time period, Historic Columbus will also be providing videos to teach our virtual campers about architecture, city planning, and how to run a city. The best building design will be announced later in the month and the winner will receive a Key to the City! More information will be following - we hope all ages (adults too!) will participate.
To honor the memory and significant impact that Patti made on the preservation movement in Columbus, the Patricia Jackson Howard Scholarship was created. It is in its 27th year of awarding graduating seniors scholarships ($2,500) based on merit and need. Over $40,000 has been awarded in Patti’s name.
This year's recipient is Miss Sherry Aschenbach of Hardaway High School!
If you are able, please consider joining or making a donation to Historic Columbus. Your contribution will increase heritage education programming in our public schools and preservation projects or directly to the Patricia Jackson Howard Scholarship. These are the places where your gift can make a transformational difference in a child’s sense of place and strengthen their future.
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