The Sugar Hill Historic Preservation Society has received a grant from the Digital Library of Georgia to help digitize the city’s handwritten city council ledgers that date back to the early part of Sugar Hill’s history.
The Digital Library of Georgia is an award-winning initiative of GALILEO, Georgia’s statewide virtual library. The DLG shares Georgia’s history online for free through its websites.
“The Sugar Hill Historic Preservation Society in cooperation with the City of Sugar Hill is excited to have received this DLG grant to preserve the rich history of the Sugar Hill community,” said Kathryn Baskin, chair of the Sugar Hill Historic Preservation Society.
The grant will help fund the digitization of the Sugar Hill City Council Records Collection that includes city council minutes, ordinances, resolutions, communications, economic studies and additional information from Sugar Hill’s incorporation in 1939 through June 1992.
“The historic value of the Sugar Hill City Council Records Collection is immeasurable since it is an original collection that doesn’t exist anywhere else in its entirety and is not digitally preserved,” Baskin said. “The collection provides the historical information on the evolution of a rural community that was mostly farmland and dirt roads and how it grew to what is now the 4th largest city in county.”
“The ledgers are historically significant to the Sugar Hill community and document many of the meetings of City Council since the city was incorporated by the Georgia General Assembly in 1939,” Sugar Hill Mayor Brandon Hembree said. “Because some of the documents are in a fragile condition, digitization will make them available for residents and researchers that want to learn more about history of their community.”
Established in 2016, the Sugar Hill Historic Preservation Society seeks to discover, promote, preserve and celebrate the history of the Sugar Hill community. The society oversees the Sugar Hill History Museum, which offers permanent and special exhibitions as well as a genealogy reference room in partnership with the Suwanee Creek Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.
The Sugar Hill Historic Preservation Society meets at 7 p.m. the third Wednesday of every month in the History Museum Room at Sugar Hill City Hall at 5039 W. Broad St. The society’s next meeting will be held Wednesday, July 20. For more information, click here.
