Historic Ithaca

Call for nominations for the 2026 Historic Ithaca Preservation Awards!
Deadline: July 17, 2026
Every year Historic Ithaca, Inc. presents awards for sensitive restoration and preservation projects within Tompkins County. Any preservation, restoration, rehabilitation, or adaptive reuse project completed within the past two years may be nominated for an award. Nominations will be reviewed by a panel of preservation professionals and awards made based on such considerations as: the importance of the project to the long-term preservation of the building; adherence to basic preservation principles as outlined in the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation; and the impact, or potential impact, of the project on the surrounding community.

Free Walk and Talk: Black Ithacans in the Ithaca City Cemetery
When: Saturday, June 20 at 9am

Join us at the main entrance gates to the Ithaca City Cemetery on University Avenue for an hour-long walking tour to the graves of selected Black Ithacans. Please wear comfortable walking shoes as this is a medium-level activity requiring uphill walking and walking on uneven surfaces. Hat, sunscreen, bug spray, and water bottle are recommended! If there is a thunderstorm or rain, the walk will not take place.

TONIGHT!

More 60th anniversary memories! Here's the late Ed Franquemont, Historic Ithaca's Executive Director from 1994-1999. This 1999 photo, taken in the State Theatre of Ithaca, appeared in the Ithaca Journal shortly after the acquisition of the State Theatre of Ithaca. From 1994-1999, Ed worked as Executive Director, and improved several Historic Ithaca initiatives. Ed was instrumental in helping the organization acquire and help save this beautiful downtown theatre. He also worked with Cornell University on plans to save the Cradit-Moore House and arrange its move when the university began its north campus residential expansion plans in 1999.

Our first free Walk and Talk of the season will be on Saturday, June 13 at 10am. Join us and Wharton Studio Museum for a stroll remembering Ithaca's theatres of days gone by. The event is free but preregistration is required. Sign up here:

Walk & Talk 2026: Ithaca's Theatres Join the Wharton Studio Museum and Historic Ithaca for a free Walk and Talk focusing on the history of Ithaca's downtown theatres. Participants will meet outside the State Theatre and walk through downtown to learn about the history of Ithaca's lost theatres.

Save the date! Thursday, June 11 at 6pm. Historic Tax Credits for Homeowners Workshop!

Thank you very much to all of the wonderful volunteers who came out this morning to the Ithaca City Cemetery and helped clean gravestones, trim branches, and put in several new Civil War veteran replacement markers.

Save the date! Thursday, June 11 at 6pm in the BorgWarner West Room at the Tompkins County Public Library.

Join us for Historic Ithaca's 60th Anniversary Open House!
When: Tuesday, June 23rd from 6-8pm
Where: Liquid State barrel room, 620 West Green St., Ithaca
Celebrate 60 years of Historic Ithaca serving Ithaca and Tompkins County! This is a buy your own drink event but there will also be free light fare and cake! Space is limited so RSVPs are required here: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/historic-ithacas-60th-anniversary-open-house

Summer is coming and that means the return of our Walk and Talks! Please visit our website for the list of dates and registration links: https://www.historicithaca.org/events -mak42ff02