THOMASVILLE — On April 6, Thomasville Landmarks presented their annual Landmarks’ Preservation Honor Awards at their Annual Membership Meeting at the Garden Center.

Nancy Tinker, Executive Director of Landmarks, said that they present the awards every year, with the community providing nominations that allow them to begin their search for quality rehabilitation projects within the local area.

“We give those once a year,” Tinker said. “We ask the community for nominations, we receive those, people may also nominate themselves if they like; we look for quality rehabilitation projects.”

From there, a committee reviews the nominations, with select projects being chosen to move forward in the process and conduct visits to the project sites.

“We have a Preservation Honor Awards Committee that reviews nomination, selects who might go forward and then we conduct site visits to actually see completed buildings on their site,” Tinker said.

With a total of ten awards given this year, Tinker said that she thought that it had been a wonderful year of quality projects, noting that this year they had one award go to a project in Grady County as well.

“I thought it went beautifully,” she said. “We had awards given to not only people in Thomasville and Thomas County, but to Grady County as well.”

Presenting the Phoenix Award to the Popes Museum, Landmarks recognized the efforts of bringing the forgotten monument of Laura Pope Forrester back to life.

“The Popes Museum is located in Grady County, Laura Pope Forrester’s museum, an early twentieth century female artist who created sculptures and murals in honor of women and women military figures located in Grady County, received our highest award, our Phoenix Award, for the efforts that family has done to create a complete and beautiful project,” Tinker said.

Michelle Dean, the Executive Director and founder of Popes Museum Preservation, said that she was honored to receive the award and for her and her organization’s hard work to be recognized.

“Thomasville is recognized across the nation, known for its high standards and excellence in historic preservation,” Dean said. “To have such a prestigious organization recognize and endorse our efforts at restoring a national treasure is thrilling. We hope that this award, along with others Popes has earned, inspires our community to schedule a tour themselves.”

Other awards presented included the Award of Merit to Howell and Sharon Maxwell Ferguson for Covey Nest, the Award of Merit to Tony and Matt Pellegrino for 923 E. Clay Street, the Award of Stewardship to Pebble Hill Plantation for the Kennel Cottage, the Award of Stewardship to Taki Ovanessian for the Keefer House, the Award of Stewardship to Elva Rubio and Scott Timcoe for the Stevens Butler House, the Achievement Award for a Contributing Addition to the Community to Matt and Jackie Johnson for 717 S. Broad Street, the Award of Stewardship to Mosaic Psychological Services, LLC for the William Miller House, the Miller-Jinright Award to Christina and Patrick Maher for 403 N. Crawford Street and the Award of Outstanding Achievement to Hinson and Lauren Arwood for The Burbank Cottage.