Julie O’Connor founded Save Our Structures - Charleston (SOS-CHS) in 2018 to shine a light on demolition-by-neglect, to work with the City and other non-profits to help owners navigate through the challenges and available resources to save these buildings, and to apply pressure on willful owners and the City through advocating the history and importance of these structures. Having moved to Charleston from Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1998, Julie was surprised and saddened to see a number of endangered historic structures in the oldest historic district in the country.  She even bought one such structure and rehabilitated it using it now for the office of her design firm, American Vernacular.  Preservation is a major component of her business, but that wasn’t enough.  She realized that she needed to fight for all of the endangered buildings and began by starting the non-profit, seating a board of directors and embarking on a comprehensive survey that identified 180 buildings in need of saving.  Now that survey is available to the public with the help of the Preservation Society of Charleston.  There is a role for everyone to play in the preservation of these buildings.  People can contribute financially, can alert SOS-CHS if there is a house they see that is not currently listed in the survey, and can lend their voices by contacting the City to do more to save our structures.