REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Proclamation of May 2024 as Historic Preservation Month
Report
COUNCIL PILLAR
Enhance Community Engagement and Transparency
BACKGROUND
Every year in May, local preservation groups, state historical societies, and business and civic organizations across the country celebrate Preservation Month through events that promote historic places and heritage tourism, and that demonstrate the social and economic benefits of historic preservation.
Preservation Month began as National Preservation Week in 1973. In 2005, the National Trust extended the celebration to the entire month of May and declared it Preservation Month to provide an even greater opportunity to celebrate the diverse and unique heritage of our country's cities and states.
The first National Preservation Week was celebrated on May 6-12, 1973. At the annual meeting on October 27, 1972, in Washington, D.C., Donald T. Sheehan, a member of the Trustees Advisory Committee on Membership & Public Relations, proposed the idea of the National Preservation Week as a "means of relating local and state preservation progress to the national effort for the mutual benefits of both." The National Trust chose the second week of May because it coincided with the organization's annual award luncheon, then in its third year.
The Historical and Landmarks Commission (HLC) is pleased to announce the launch of the 2024 Historical and Landmarks "Art meets History" Banner project for the month of May in honor of National Preservation Month. It's a first for the HLC Commission. The new initiative will celebrate historic preservation and showcase the heritage, events and landmarks that define our area. For this year, HLC chose to start on the state's first highway, El Camino Real, between Lafayette and Scott Boulevard.
Residents and visitors are encouraged to take a stroll along El Camino Real to admire the banners-a fantastic way to engage the community with its own history. Each banner visually ...
Click here for full text