History Cherokee Announces Historic Preservation Awards History Cherokee (HC) honored preservation successes in Cherokee County during its annual Preservation Awards banquet. Keynote speaker Victoria Lemos of the Archive Atlanta podcast delivered a compelling talk on how important it is to use nontraditional tools for preservation advocacy. During the evening, HC honored the following historic sites with preservation awards: Goshen Baptist Church in Salacoa, The Grande Tea Room in Ball Ground, the Hickory Flat Gym in Canton, Bennett’s Store in Waleska, Conns Creek Baptist Church and School in Ball Ground, and the Grogan-Holcomb-McNeal Home in Woodstock. Conns Creek has been on HC’s sites worth saving list, showing just how far preservation work can go with the right level of awareness and advocacy.“The award winners this year represent a diverse type of historic properties found throughout Cherokee County. Four properties are all community landmarks — churches, a country store, and school gym. The other two were built 30 years apart but exhibit the same craftsmanship found in many historic residential buildings such as the tongue-and-groove walls,” said HC Executive Director Stefanie Joyner.Additionally, HC presented two individual awards to community members who have volunteered their time and resources to furthering HC’s mission of collecting, preserving, and sharing Cherokee County history. City Councilwoman and long-time community figure JoEllen Wilson received the Volunteer of the Year Award for her work on the capital campaign to help build the new Cherokee County History Center (opening in November) and for current volunteer work on HC’s development committee. HC’s prestigious Judson W. Roberts Lifetime Service Award was presented to Rebecca Johnston. “Rebecca has been a treasured volunteer for over a decade and has worked tirelessly to preserve Cherokee County’s history. In addition to publishing numerous history books, she has led our capital campaign efforts to build the new History Center. Under her leadership, we were able to raise over 4.3 million dollars,” said Joyner.History Cherokee will continue to support historic preservation in our community through the annual Preservation Awards banquet. To learn how you can get involved, visit HistoryCherokee.org/support.
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