The National Trust for Historic Preservation will present its Trustees’ Award for Organizational Excellence to Historic Macon Foundation (HMF), which has been promoting preservation across Macon, Georgia, for more than five decades. The group is one of nine award winners to be honored by the National Trust during its 2018 PastForward National Preservation Conference this week in San Francisco.

Historic Macon Foundation, building on the success of two preceding organizations, offers a mix of complementary historic preservation services that have helped transform blight into vibrant mixed-income neighborhoods and a thriving downtown. HMF rehabilitates and sells approximately 10 formerly vacant historic or newly built houses per year, promoting home ownership and neighborhood stabilization without displacing existing residents. It provides education and advocacy programs as well, such as the annual “Fading Five” list that sparks redevelopment strategies for endangered properties and works closely with a variety of partners including Mercer University, Macon-Bibb County Land Bank Authority, and Knight Foundation to strengthen Macon’s economy through affirming its sense of place.

“Historic Macon Foundation is a national innovator in how to promote preservation as an inclusive community-building and economic development strategy,” said Stephanie Meeks, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “Its incremental, block by block, neighborhood-by-neighborhood approach to revitalizing vacant properties has been particularly effective in demonstrating the powerful impact of saving places.”

Historic Macon Foundation also pioneered the development of technology that makes the federal historic tax credit program easier to use and understand, resulting in a state-leading number of adaptive reuse projects that retain Macon’s distinctive historic fabric rather than demolish it.

The National Preservation Awards are bestowed on distinguished individuals, nonprofit organizations, public agencies and corporations whose skill and determination have given new meaning to their communities through preservation of our architectural and cultural heritage. These efforts include citizen attempts to save and maintain important landmarks; companies and craftsmen whose work restores the richness of the past; the vision of public officials who support preservation projects and legislation in their communities; and educators and journalists who help Americans understand the value of preservation. The winners of the National Preservation Awards will appear online.

Sample Tweet: @HistoricMacon Foundation wins @SavingPlaces award at #PastForward2018

The 2018 National Preservation Award Winners:

• Louise du Pont Crowninshield Award: Jay Turnbull, San Francisco, CA
• American Express Aspire Award: Sarah Marsom, Columbus, OH
• John H. Chafee Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement in Public Policy: Sen. Bill Cassidy, LA
• Trustees’ Award for Organizational Excellence: Historic Macon Foundation, Macon, GA
• Trustees Emeritus Award for Excellence in the Stewardship of Historic Sites: Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center, Nyack, NY
• Peter H. Brink Award for Individual Achievement in Historic Preservation: Matthew Adams, San Francisco, CA

The 2018 Richard H. Driehaus Foundation National Preservation Award Winners:

• Crosstown Concourse, Memphis, TN
• The Douglass at Page Woodson, Oklahoma City, OK
• Richardson Olmsted Campus, Buffalo, NY