The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation has announced that its members and friends will return to Washington September 18-19 to explore local history and architecture during the Trust's annual Fall Ramble.

"We're very excited to host the Trust's Fall Ramble," said Betty Slaton, who leads the committee hosting the event. "This is a very big thing for us, with several hundred people coming."

Slaton said Washington was unique in hosting the city's fourth visit for the Ramble. "They came in the 1970s, then again in 1988, and in 1999."

On Friday afternoon, September 18, Ramblers will explore seven antebellum and Victorian homes and three churches in rural Danburg, she said. "Then in the evening, Ramblers will have a very elegant dinner on the grounds of Peacewood Plantation," a historic plantation home that dates back to the 1790s.

Following dinner, participants are invited to the recently rehabilitated Retro Cinema in Washington to mingle at the cinema's wine bar, browse the bookstore, and enjoy a film.

On Saturday, after an orientation and continental breakfast at Washington's First Baptist Church, Slaton said, Ramblers will explore some 12 historic homes, four churches, two museums, Callaway Plantation and the Mary Willis Library in Washington, with a luncheon following at First United Methodist Church.

The Fall Ramble is open to members of the Georgia Trust, she said, but membership is available from the Trust's website Georgiatrust. org, and applications are available at the Washington-Wilkes Chamber of Commerce. Information is also available from Mary Railey Binns at 404-885-7812 or mrbinns@georgiatrust. org.

Founded in 1973, The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation is one of the country's largest statewide, nonprofit preservation organizations, Slaton said. "The Trust is committed to preserving and enhancing Georgia's communities and their diverse historic resources for the education and enjoyment of all."