Bridging the Gap: Keeping your Favorite Historic Sites Vibrant During a Time of Quarantine

Having to temporarily close our six historic sites to the public and cancel or postpone our in-person programs and workshops have been detrimental to our operating budget. However, our staff continues to identify new and creative ways to deliver our services.

Diligently Digitally is our new motto. To continue to fulfill our mission to save historic places and educate the public about the importance of history, our staff banded together to quickly and efficiently deliver the following:

  • Virtual tours of our historic properties online
  • Educational programs for students at home during the COVID crisis
  • Updated educational resources on our website
  • Webinars on history topics and preservation best practices
  • Continued consultation on preservation issues across the Commonwealth and advocacy campaigns for saving historic sites

In addition to our daily work weighing in on preservation issues throughout the state and maintaining our historic sites, we’ve created two dozen videos and webinars in the last six weeks. We’re committed to educating the public about the importance of history even while history is made during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our CEO Elizabeth S. Kostelny recently spoke to these points in a message to our supporters:

But we can’t do this alone. We do not receive state or federal funding outside of project-based grants. In 2019, $80,000 was donated to Preservation Virginia’s annual fund between April 1st and June 30th to ensure our work could continue. We need your help to reach that goal this year. If you love Virginia history and want to see it preserved for future generations of children, please make a gift now. It’s absolutely critical to continuing our work.

Donate securely online here, or please consider becoming a monthly donor. Monthly, recurring payments are simple to set up and really add up over time. They make a huge difference.

These times are tough on everyone. We hope you’ll help us get through them too.