PRESERVATION
Through historic preservation and interpretation, we ask complex questions about our past, and learn surprising things about our history and ourselves. A better understanding of the past can, and often does, positively inform our future.
Historic preservation plays a critical role in the mission of the NSCDA-GA. Support and operation of the Andrew Low House Museum is one of the most important ways that the State Society serves its mission of preservation and education. The Society received a Historic Savannah Foundation Preservation Award in 1978 for its interior restoration of the Andrew Low House. In 2008, the Society received a grant for the museum from the prestigious Save America’s Treasures Program, a joint initiative by the National Park Service, Institute of Library and Museum Services, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2022, the Georgia Society was recognized with the Lamar Award for Excellence in Museums Properties by the National Board of the NSCDA. This award was given to the Andrew Low House Museum for its program, Tasting Traditions, an interpretive lecture and demonstration of 19th century cooking traditions and methods used by enslaved men and women in the coastal Georgia region.
NATIONAL HISTORIC PROPERTIES
Nationally, the NSCDA owns and operates more historic properties than any other American organization outside the federal government. In 2020, NSCDA formed a consortium of sixty properties from all over the country called the Great American Treasures Museum Alliance. The Andrew Low House is an active participant in this alliance.
DUMBARTON HOUSE
National Headquarters and Museum House 2715 Q Street NW | Washington, D.C.
www.dumbartonhouse.org
Dumbarton House is the National Headquarters of our Society. The National Society purchased the house in 1928 and restored it to its early 19th century character. Dumbarton House contains offices and meeting spaces for The National Society. State Society representatives serve on the board as Ladies of Dumbarton House.
GUNSTON HALL
Home of George Mason (1725-1792), author of America’s first Bill of Rights Mason Neck, VA (20 miles south of Washington D.C.)
www.gunstonhall.org
Gunston Hall was the home of George Mason, author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. In 1932 to honor his wife, a former Colonial Dame, Louis Hertle, last owner of Gunston Hall, deeded the property to the Commonwealth of Virginia, to be administered by the NSCDA through a board composed of members from each State Society known as Regents of Gunston Hall.
SULGRAVE MANOR
Ancestral home of George Washington located near Banbury, Northamptonshire, England (72 miles from London)
www.sulgravemanor.org
As the ancestral home of George Washington’s family, it was from here that his great-grandfather left in 1656 for Virginia, where he acquired land, later the site of Mount Vernon. In 1914, Sulgrave Manor was given by a group of British subscribers to the peoples of Great Britain and the United States. The NSCDA endows the manor and promotes interest in the United States. State Society Representatives are known as Associate Trustees of the Friends of Sulgrave Manor.