Historic Preservation

Explore a few of the Conservancy’s historic preservation projects.

Nolan CrossroadsThe Nolan Crossroads is a pristine example of a tenant farming operation in the south.  Without a single modern intrusion, the crossroads retains its c. 1817 Nolan House, c. 1902 Nolan House, a commissary, a mule barn, and several tenant houses and barns.  It is simply a spectacularly beautiful and important historic landscape.

  • The Conservancy has been working with the landowners of all four corners to ensure preservation of these buildings.  More should be done to ensure that this important story continues to be told through the visual clues that inspire so many.

Malcom’s Crossroads: At one of the highest points in Morgan County, Malcom’s Crossroads is an almost pristine example of a tenant farming operation.  Once the center of an approximately 4,000-acre cotton plantation, the crossroads includes a house, a commissary, and a barn (much like Nolan Crossroads), all of which have now been restored.

  • The Conservancy assisted the owner of the Malcom House in historic materials conservation decisions and historic restoration planning.

  Sugar Creek ChurchIn 2016, when the Conservancy was notified that a demolition permit had been secured by the congregation of Sugar Creek Baptist Church, we began our efforts to save the 100-year-old church building. The simple, quaint, rural church was home to Morgan County’s oldest congregation, founded in 1806 (even before Morgan County was founded), and we thought it was important for that story to continue to be told visually from public view.

  • The Conservancy negotiated with the church pastor, advocating for alternatives, but in the end had to arrange to move the church off site to save it from demolition.

Click here to read more about Sugar Creek Church on the Historic Rural Churches of Georgia website.

 Wallace Grove School:  In 2011 the Conservancy assisted the Wallace Grove Baptist Church in restoring the last in situ black school from the turn of the century.  Built in 1901, the Wallace Grove School was just one of a multitude of schools built in rural African American communities in Morgan County at the turn of the twentieth century.  Almost all of the schools are gone, so the preservation of the Wallace Grove School will provide the opportunity to interpret an important part of Morgan County’s educational and black history for years to come through an authentic and beautiful example of a turn of the century rural African American school.

  • The Conservancy assisted the Church in soliciting donations of materials, in historic materials conservation decisions, and historic restoration planning.