Protecting our local heritage can be easy and fun.
Below are 10 simple ways to preserve historic places.

1. Explore your family’s history. Show your kids the places where you went to school or where you got married; take your parents to a place that’s important in your life.
2. Walk or bike. Getting out of your car allows you to appreciate the buildings and parks that make up the place you live, and you’ll also have a much better chance of catching up with your friends and neighbors
3. Shop downtown. Our traditional commercial businesses not only have appealing buildings – look up and admire the detail of the upper floors- but they also feature locally-owned stores that are vital parts of your community
4. Tour your hometown. Visit a historic site or stop by the historical society or a local history museum. Check the events calendar in the newspaper or on the Web, then go to one of the street fairs or ethnic festivals or neighborhood tours you’ve always meant to enjoy.
5. Read all about it. Our community has booklets and walking tour guides about our local history. They’re available at the local library, the Visitors’ Information Center, the Historical Society and many of the local shops in the downtown area.
6. Entertain yourself surrounded by history. Attend a live performance at a theater, or eat at a restaurant in a historic building.   If you like the atmosphere, tell the owner or host.
7. Join an organization (such as the National Trust)– even better, more than one — dedicated to preservation. Become a member of CPSA on-line, or investigate other preservation groups in the city, state and nation.
8. Sleep in a historic place. There are historic inns and b&b’s across the country stay in one on your next weekend getaway.
9. Ask your neighbors about your neighborhood. Talk to people who’ve lived on your street longer than you have. Find out what they remember about living there, and about the people who have moved on.
10. Visit some sacred history. Churches are often among a community’s oldest and most beautiful buildings, and cemeteries reveal the fascinating lives those who came before.