The City of Valdosta is one of nine Georgia municipalities awarded a federal subgrant to support historic preservation activities in our community. Valdosta received $13,500 from the 2019 Historic Preservation Fund Grant to use for completing an updated historic resource survey. This allows officials to resurvey the Valdosta Local Historic District. The existing survey was completed in 2004 and included properties 50 years old and older, while the new survey will include properties 40 years old and older to have a longer lifespan.

"This grant is very important to Valdosta because the existing survey is 15 years old and the Historic Preservation Commission's decision-making process is being adversely affected by outdated information," said Historic Preservation and Special Projects Planner, James Horton.

The Historic Preservation Fund Grants facilitate historic preservation planning initiatives and projects such as historic resource surveys, outreach efforts, and brick-and-mortar projects throughout the state. The grants are provided annually through the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Park Service and are administered by the Historic Preservation Division (HPD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Each year, Georgia’s 99 Certified Local Governments (CLGs) are eligible to apply for these matching grants (60 percent federal/40 percent local).

Valdosta applied for the grant as part of a three-year historic preservation initiative. The three-year plan is as follows:

Year One: Re-survey the 40 years old or older resources within the existing Local Historic District. The existing survey is over ten years old, is outdated and required to be re-surveyed.

Year Two: Five of the seven National Register Historic Districts are within Valdosta’s Local Historic District but two are not, East End and Southside are currently displaced outside the District. The proposal includes the survey of the resources 40 years old or older in both the East End and the Southside National Register Historic Districts.

Year Three: Survey the 40 years old or older resources in the proposed Alden Park/Georgia Avenue District. The Georgia Avenue neighborhood is a Mid-century Modern neighborhood that has recently become historic and the Alden Park neighborhood consists of small Post WWII homes. Neither has been surveyed or documented.