AASLH 2024 Leadership in History Awards
Mt. Tabor Preservation Project of Mt. Holly Springs, Pennsylvania, Recognized with
Albert B. Corey Award

For more than 75 years, AASLH has given Leadership in History Awards to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, and interpretation of state and local history in order to make the past more meaningful to all people. This week we are announcing the 2024 Leadership in History Award recipients.

The Albert B. Corey Award recognizes primarily volunteer-operated historical organizations and projects that best display the qualities of vigor, scholarship, and imagination in their work. This is an award made at the discretion of the Awards Committee and is AASLH’s most prestigious award for all-volunteer institutions and initiatives.

The 2024 Albert B. Corey Award goes to the Mt. Tabor Preservation Project of Mt. Holly Springs, Pennsylvania.

This all-volunteer, community-led initiative is dedicated to preserving the circa 1870 Mt. Tabor African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) church and nearby Black cemetery in Mt. Holly Springs. This multi-faceted project includes preservation, community engagement, and programming.

The project began with the uncovering of the site in 2016 after an oral storytelling project brought the church’s existence and history to light. Before this, the Black community was nearly non-existent in the town’s history and the church was forgotten.

The project first preserved the church and placed a fence at the nearby Black cemetery to protect the burials, which included formerly enslaved individuals and seven Civil War veterans. They next identified unmarked graves with ground-penetrating radar, further documenting and preserving this space

Restoration of the church began in 2022, which included stabilization of the foundation, window restoration, a new roof, and a painted interior. By the end of 2023, the church was available for public events. Thanks to community-led leadership, the church is preserved for future generations to learn about the Black community and their contributions to the region’s history. To learn more about this inspiring project, visit mttaborpreservation.com.

More awards will be announced this week! Look for announcements on Thursday for the History in Progress awards and on Friday for the Awards of Excellence.