Heritage Awards

by Michelle McCullough

The Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission sponsors a biennial awards program called the Heritage Awards. The Heritage Awards were created to recognize individuals, groups, organizations, or businesses active in the preservation, restoration, rehabilitation or interpretation of the county’s architectural, cultural, or natural heritage. The award recipients have made a large impact, not only on their local neighborhood, but the greater community as well.

Award Category:

Awards are given based on the project merit, as determined by the selection criteria. Each year the nominations are divided into appropriate categories. The following are a list of general categories that are used: Residential, Commercial/Institutional, Historic Landscapes, Advocacy, and Individual.

In 2008, the HRC introduced a new award which will memorialize and celebrate the life of one of Forsyth County’s most outstanding citizens, Hamilton C. Horton, Jr., through the Hamilton C. Horton, Jr. Remembrance Award.

This award is given to an individual or group who has demonstrated leadership and exemplary services in the Historic Preservation field in Winston Salem and Forsyth County.

Selection Criteria:

Nominations will be evaluated by the following general criteria:

Leadership – The recipient shall have shown excellence in effort (in communication, presentation, results) and in characteristics, which together make the recipient’s efforts a model for similar initiatives.
Commitment – The recipient shall have a record of long-term involvement with historic preservation or shall have demonstrated intense involvement within a short period of time or for a specific mission.
Aesthetics – The recipient shall have demonstrated appropriate awareness, consciousness, and sensitivity to the aesthetic elements that make the project historically, and/or architecturally significant, including image, form, context, materials, design, texture, and construction.
Impact – The recipient shall have left an impact on historic preservation efforts in Forsyth County.
Standards - Recipients must demonstrate that the project or activity conforms to applicable professional standards, such as the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for preservation projects, or other standards for archaeology, interpretation, oral history, etc.

2008 Awards Ceremony

The 2008 Forsyth County Historic Resources Commission Heritage Awards program was held on May 7 at the Salem College Fine Arts Center and was a tremendous success! The evening began with words of welcome from Mike Phillips, Chairman of the HRC, and Winston-Salem’s Mayor Allen Joines. The evening’s keynote speaker, Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr., then took the stage, and held the audience captive with his motivating, yet entertaining talk about the great successes he has shared with the City of Charleston during his nine terms as mayor.

List of 2008 Heritage Awards nominees [13kb/pdf/2p]

2008 Heritage Awards recipients

List of 2006 Heritage Awards nominees [10kb/pdf/1p]

2006 Heritage Awards recipients

revised 4/28/2010