History is the glue that holds us all together. But when it appears in a textbook as a mere list of names, facts, and dates, it can seem lifeless and pointless to even the most curious adult. The Dunwoody Preservation Trust (DPT) is committed to telling history in ways textbooks can’t.
DPT has begun restoring and preserving historic assets, including historic CAs. to education, including the 1870 Donaldson Bannister Farm, his 1906 Cheeksprull House, a Dunwoody landmark, and three historic cemeteries where some of Dunwoody’s early settlers are buried is growing in interest.
Many people are familiar with Camp Flashbacks by now. Camp Flashback is the only summer history camp for kids in our neighborhood. In his five one-week sessions, campers leave their cell phones at home and live like farm kids in the 1870s. Registration for Camp Flashback typically opens in January. It is so popular that all 5 times are sold out by the end of February.
Lesser known is History Alive, DPT’s Saturday morning adult education series. Held every odd month at Donaldson’s Bannister Farm from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., History Alive was launched in 2013 by then-co-chairman Monica McGurk of the DPT to make historic preservation more relevant to the community. It all started when we formed a committee to look at ways. .
“We asked ourselves, ‘How do we bring history to life to make the DPT mission more accessible and relevant,'” McGurk said recently from his home in Chicago. rice field.
The result was History Alive. It started small with a few events and talks scheduled sporadically at various locations in Dunwoody and Sandy Springs, but it was never boring. I was particularly impressed by the sacred shape of his notes singing, performed in the small Ebenezer Primitive His Baptist Church built between 1829 and 1880, at the intersection of Roberts, Spalding and Dunwoody Club Drives. participated in the performance.
Once popular in early rural America, shape note singing, in which printed notes come in various shapes to indicate sounds, eventually came to be associated primarily in rural Southern states. . By the mid-nineteenth century, it was popularly known as The Sacred Harp Song, based on the 1844 “The Sacred Harp” songbook. In the 1960s, the Sacred Harp song was revived. If you’ve seen the movie Cold Mountain, you’ve heard the sacred harp sing.
The experience embodies the concept of History Alive. Just reading about the Sacred Harp song doesn’t make sense. Of course, there are now plenty of YouTube video examples. But nothing beats being there – and we were in that little historic church, listening to delightful a cappella sounds from the past. Without History Alive, I would have never heard the shapenotes or the sacred harp singing, and would have passed by his historic Ebenezer Primitive Baptist Church and Cemetery.
But this is the point of History Alive. Now a lifelong educator, he is highly organized under the leadership of DPT’s Director of Educational Programming, Dr. Jim Walker. History Alive includes both events and presentations and Some are due to those who lived through the history we are discussing.
Most events and presentations involve Georgia, but not all. One of his presentations that I particularly enjoyed was “Fighting Fascism on Film” by John Thomas, Professor of American History at Mercer University. Using clips from movies and documentaries from the 1940s, it showed how then-patriotic Hollywood changed the minds of the American public in favor of America’s efforts during World War II.
Other recent History Alive topics include “Salute to the Memory of Martin Luther King Jr.”, Artifacts from MLK’s Life, “The Ancient Ways of the Cherokee Nation and How They Can Be Used Today”, Special Forces Vietnam Veteran Helicopter”. Pilot” and “Marriage in Georgia: Love or Money?”
The next presentation will be “History and the Holocaust” on September 17th, with Brendan Murphy, Marist history teacher and scholar. Having taken his full adult course, I highly recommend attending. At least, it gets you out of bed at a decent hour and offers a free breakfast of coffee and pastries courtesy of Georgetown Starbucks.
Continuing, why not visit the History Alive page on the DPT website and see for yourself? Admission is free, but donations are welcome. The Donaldson Bannister Farm is located at 4831 Chamblee Dunwoody Road, Dunwoody.
