This is the fourth and final guest column as part of Historic Preservation Month.

May is Historic Preservation Month. Established in 1973 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Preservation Month celebrates and promotes our heritage through historic places.

People around our nation participate in Preservation Month celebrations. In our South Georgia region, local preservation groups, including the Valdosta Heritage Foundation, the Valdosta Historic Preservation Commission and the Lowndes County Historical Society are joined by other local civic organizations, elected officials, businesses and individuals in promoting our rich historic heritage with the purpose of instilling community pride and showing the social and economic benefits of historic preservation.

This year’s Preservation Month theme is “People Saving Places,” which is a “national high-five to everyone doing the great work of saving places – in ways big and small – and inspiring others to do the same.”

So, let’s take a moment and high-five every individual, business, organization and elected official that has worked to advocate for, protect and restore historic places across our South Georgia city of Valdosta and Lowndes County.

Driving around town, one can’t help but wonder how many of our beautiful historic places and landmarks wouldn’t be still standing had it not been for historic preservation minded people?

When my husband and I moved to Valdosta in 2006, I remember seeing at the time signs announcing the restoration of the City Market building, currently the restored Patterson on the corner of Patterson and Hill.

Locals were proud to share with me stories about the renovated Hildegard building, home to Christ the King at the time, and currently the newly restored McKey Building, one of my current projects.

I remember enjoying a fabulous lunch at Luna’s, a great restaurant in a little two-story gem of a building (later home to Steel Magnolias).

I remember walking up and down the streets downtown, in the South Georgia summer heat, and investigating every available building as a potential site to restore and locate my architecture firm in. There were many vacant buildings; too many at the time.

I remember the City of Valdosta making quite an impression on me, a young architect with principles rooted in historic preservation and traditional town planning. My husband and I drove around and we explored this charming Southern city.

We drove through the beautiful Fairview Historic District. We drove through the historic neighborhood along and surrounding Williams Street (Brookwood Historic District). We explored the area around Valdosta State University. We drove past the overpass and around the Southside Historic District.

I recognized so many of the architectural typologies that we study in school. I recognized the urban design and town planning principles that we study in school.

There were beautiful homes, of all sizes, scale, and grandeur, and many magnificent structures, including the majestic Courthouse and splendid and beautiful churches. It was evident that people in this small Southern town care about their places.

I saw Valdosta. I saw a hard-working, enduring, traditional and beautiful American City.

We found our home. We purchased our first house, a small 1939 historic home, where we still live and where we are raising our children. My firm restored the historic 1905 Roberts Building downtown, which has been home to the current Gladwin Vaughn Architecture since 2008. And since then, I have been part of and have witnessed the continued rebirth of historic downtown.

I have also seen the restoration and preservation of many historic places. Historic places that tell the stories of our community. Stories that define these places. Stories of those whose labor enabled these historic places to be.

Historic preservation is both about preserving historic places and telling their stories. It takes historic preservation minded people to save these places.

Who are these people saving these places? They are regular, everyday people. They are homeowners, business owners, educators, developers, professionals, laborers, entrepreneurs, builders, pastors, civic leaders, and everybody in between. They are ordinary citizens connected with their personal histories who acknowledge the need for protecting and saving a place. They are every homeowner who painstakingly spends hours finding the right window that is acceptable for their old home. They are every building owner, builder and architect that diligently works with the local authorities to ensure their proposed work complies with the local ordinance.

They are every historian that studiously researches and documents every story that defines these places to tell the full story in an honest and meaningful way.

They are everyone of us that wants to create a sense of place, promote our historic heritage and instill community pride by protecting our vernacular architecture from being lost forever, while maintaining continuity between our past, our present and the future.

Céline H. Gladwin is co-owner of the local architecture firm, Gladwin Vaughn Architecture and is currently the vice-chair of the Georgia National Register Review Board and serves on the Valdosta Historic Preservation Commission. She may be reached at cgladwin@gladwinvaughn.com