Summer Camp
The Atlanta Preservation Center welcomes elementary-aged students from the City of Refuge, in collaboration with a number of community and preservation partners each summer for a week of fun! Our camp is based out of the L.P. Grant Mansion (APC headquarters) where we learn about the importance of historic preservation at the oldest house in the city of Atlanta (c.1856). The children are introduced to historic preservation through hands-on learning and by visiting historic spaces and hearing stories of the past. Our goal is to ignite a passion for history and culture in these children and a lifelong love and respect for saving places that matter.
Historic Spaces we visit include Grant Park, The Plaza Theatre, Madame C.J. Walker Museum and the Wren’s Nest — to name just a few.
We are grateful for our partnership with Zoo Atlanta where we spend each afternoon exploring while talking about the architecture and habitats of the Zoo.
This camp is free to these children through the kindness of our wonderful sponsors and APC members. Thank you so much for contributing to this unforgettable experience for these amazing children.
Please let us know if you would like to contribute to next year’s camp!
Some of our Summer Camp Excursions:
We visited the Madame C.J. Walker Museum and learned about America’s first female self-made millionaire and African American philanthropist. The museum is also home to WERD studio, the first black-owned radio station in America.
The children danced to old vinyl records and got to meet and sing “Celebrate” with Chicago Mike, a member of Kool and the Gang! Thank you Ricci and Biondi de Forest for a memorable morning.
We visited the Wrens Nest, Atlanta’s oldest house museum. After listening to a wonderful storyteller we toured the house. The Wrens Nest, who participated in the Mayor’s Summer Reading Club gave each child a beautiful book.
We spent one morning visiting Atlanta’s oldest movie theater, the Plaza, in operation since 1939 and got a behind-the-scenes look at how a movie theater works. We also saw how a concession stand works and sampled some popcorn!
Thank you so much to Chris and Nicole Escobar and the wonderful team at the Plaza Theatre for an unforgettable experience.
Visiting the Plaza Theatre the children had a lesson on film and watched clips of a 1961 Yogi Bear cartoon. They also watched silent films accompanied on the organ by the amazing Ken Double who plays the organ at the Fox Theatre. A big thank you to the Plaza Theatre.
Featured Lesson from Summer 2023 Camp:
The children learned about chronophotography — invented by Eadweard Muybridge in 1878. These first motion pictures such as “The Horse in Motion” were shown through a zoopraxiscope and pre-date films by Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers.
The children learned about chronophotography — invented by Eadweard Muybridge in 1878. These first motion pictures such as “The Horse in Motion” were shown through a zoopraxiscope and pre-date films by Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers.
Saving Atlanta’s history for our future starts with engaging young people today. Visiting historic spaces is an important way to engage and educate children about our past and instill a passion for history.
