About Georgetown Heritage Society
America’s Bicentennial celebrations in 1976 sparked a nationwide preservation boom. In Georgetown, a group of citizens who had worked diligently on Georgetown’s Bicentennial celebration also had a heightened awareness of historic resources at the local level. It was the vision of this group that led to the formation of the Georgetown Heritage Society in 1977.
As its name suggests, the Society’s mission is to preserve and promote interest in Georgetown’s heritage—its historic buildings and sites and the people associated with them, as well as the documents, pictures and other records relating to them. Among the Society’s lasting achievements that all Georgetown citizens still enjoy today are organizing the first Christmas Stroll, reviving the old traditional May Fair (now the Red Poppy Festival), starting the Georgetown History and Visitor Information Center (now run by the City) and collecting a substantial repository of historic photographs and documents (now in the custody of the Georgetown Public Library).
Today the Georgetown Heritage Society works to fulfill our mission in a variety of ways. The most visible is the annual Holiday Home Tour, featuring five historic homes decorated for the holidays that are open to the public during the second weekend of December. Proceeds from the tour are used to support other GHS initiatives.
These include a variety of entertaining and informative programs on topics of historical, architectural and cultural interest, most open free to the public. In recent years some popular programs include an antiques appraisal fair, a bus tour of the LBJ ranch hosted by Luci Baines Johnson, programs on such diverse topics as restoring old wooden windows, gardening with antique roses, and the Gault archaeological site near Florence, and local authors speaking about their books on the Texas Rangers, Georgetown history in photographs, and Williamson County Sheriff John Olive. Other member benefits include an annual picnic each May and a variety of other receptions and parties.
GHS also gives back to the Georgetown community by means of its Scholarship Program. As funding permits, one or more scholarships are made available to Georgetown high school seniors each year, with the winner(s) determined by a contest.
The Georgetown Heritage Society offices are located at Grace Heritage Center, 811 South Main Street in historic downtown Georgetown. Grace Heritage Center is open to the public on Thursdays and Fridays from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
As GHS approaches 35 years of community service, we thank you for your patronage and support. As Georgetown deals with the challenges posed by rapid growth, our task is the preserve the important pieces of our common heritage. Working together, we can honor the past for future generations. We encourage you to visit the Center, drop us a note, or give us a call. New members are always welcome, and we look forward to seeing you soon!
