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Reflections: Decades of SOHO News Now Online!
January/February 2020
 SOHO's library of newsletters, dating from March 1969, two months after the group was founded, are now available on our website. What a treat to read our history, with volunteers credited year by year. The energy and character of the group and its remarkable members shine through.
The first issue, for example, quotes Queen Victoria and John Ruskin; reports a leap in membership from the original 30 to 164 preservationists by March 9, offers six note cards featuring a Robert Miles Parker ink drawing of the Sherman-Gilbert House for $1, requests donations of Victorian antiques to furnish the house, and much more. Parker, a SOHO co-founder and its first chairman, wrote: "In exactly two months' time, we have become a valuable and moving force. We have been recognized as an organisation that has something important to do and is seriously intent on doing it."
You may want to set aside a few hours, because reading these spirited SOHO chronicles is addictive, fun, and filled with preservation history and tactics. Find all the Reflections newsletters HERE.
Editor's note: An unintended but welcome consequence of our archives digitization project resulted in the realization that we had incorrectly noted the number of years for two of our advocacy programs. We found that members launched the People In Preservation Awards in May 1983, making them 37 years old in 2020. The first Most Endangered List (originally called Buildings at Risk) dates to November 1992, so this preservation tool will be 28 years old this year
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