Changes coming to Columbus Pilgrimage

COLUMBUS, Miss (WCBI) – The annual Columbus Pilgrimage is right around the corner.

But this year there may be some noticeable changes.

The Spring Pilgrimage is one of Columbus’ oldest traditions, but if a group of home owners has its way there could be new leadership for the nearly 80 year old event.

Currently the spring tour of some of the city’s oldest homes has been organized and ran by the Columbus Cultural Heritage Foundation and the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Several homeowners have come together to form a new group, The Preservation Society of Columbus.

Members would like to see a shift in the event’s focus.

“Well we’re going back to it’s original founding which was by the owners of the homes and that’s how the pilgrimage got started back in 1940. It’s been going on since then, and all we’re doing is know that the homeowners have the biggest stake in this because the homeowners have to make their homes available,” said Leike.

Preservation Society president Dick Leike said that they feel the owners can tell the story of these homes better.

“We think that we can do a better job of getting the history and everything out to the public since we own these homes. We keep them up, we maintain them, we take care of them, we open them up, we know the history on them, and that’s one reason why we feel that we need to go back the way the original founding was where we’re not tied up with a lot of other things, but can concentrate on pilgrimage,” said Leike.

Leike said that there are no hard feelings.

“This isn’t a thing that is against the CVB or against anything else. It’s just the homeowners thinking that they can do a very good job by concentrating on this part of the history and the houses that they have and so forth.that way we know how to convey what happened in these properties,” Leike said.

We reached out to the Executive director of the CVB and CCHF Nancy Carpenter. But she said she could not comment until after the board has studied The Preservation Society’s proposal.

The Board meets on the 3rd Monday of every month.