Preservation Month Activities
Check out this list of sample activities to help you celebrate National Preservation Month in your community.
- Host a This Place Matters Open House to show off a historic building that has been recently restored or is in need of restoration.
- Work with local students to research the history of their community and document places that matter to them by posting pictures or videos. Have students share their research projects with us on the Preservation Month Blackboard.
- Encourage Main Street merchants to create a This Business Matters campaign using special store-window displays that highlight the history of their business or building.
- Organize a work project to clean up a historic town square, park or cemetery. Share your stories and pictures.
"This is so cool and it gives us a way to share our successes (and battles) with others. It provides a wonderful 'viral' way to spread the word about what people can do to preserve our history...This is such a great way for grassroots volunteers and organizations to speak to a national audience...because 'this place matters' really does matter!" - Guy Ball, Irvine, CA
- Conduct a walking tour through a historic district. Don't forget to take pictures or video.
- Organize a block party, community picnic or period fashion show in a historic neighborhood or park. Take a group photo!
- Hold a local This Place Matters photo or video contest asking your community members to tell you why a place matters to them.
- Interview a local politician and ask them to pose with a This Place Matters sign in front of THEIR favorite place.
- Bury a This Place Matters Time Capsule to be opened in 2059. Include places that you want to still be around for the community fifty years from now.
- Organize a visit to your statehouse or Congressional home office and explain why preservation matters to you. Take a This Place Matters photo with your elected official.
- Hold a This Place Matters Scavenger Hunt and give a prize to the person submitting pictures of themself in front of the most places.
- Write a story for your newsletter or website about Preservation Month, This Place Matters, and how you are celebrating.
- Organize a group to volunteer on an archaeological dig.
- Hold a career day, inviting preservationists, architects, craftspeople, researchers and others to speak to students about their work. Ask the students to tell others about it on the Preservation Month Blackboard.
- If a historic building in town is threatened with demolition, hold rallies, letter-writing campaigns, cleanup days, and/or public town meetings.
- Hold Workshops for owners of older and historic houses.
- Collect "then and now" photos of your community and exhibit them in a public space such as a school or library. You can also share them online with the This Place Matters Flickr Group.
- Submit an item for our Preservation Month Auction.
- Present preservation awards to those who have made a difference in your community.
- Conduct an oral history interview with longtime residents. If you videotape it, share it! We may feature it on www.PreservationNation.org.
Share your ideas for other activities on the Preservation Month Stories Discussion Board.
