County historian presents QR code concept for Graham historic buildings

County historian presents QR code concept for Graham historic buildings News Staff Tue, 06/11/2024 - 9:36 am

• (THOMAS WALLNER | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Young County historian Dorman Holub holds up a proof of concept for a virtual tour of downtown Graham. The concept was presented to the Downtown Development District during their meeting Tuesday, June 4.

Thomas Wallner editor@grahamleader.com

A proof of concept for a scannable, window display QR code was presented last week by Young County historian Dorman Holub as a way to promote the history of downtown Graham.

The concept was presented in the open comment section during the Downtown Development District meeting held Tuesday, June 4.

While the Young County historian is looking to place the item on a future agenda, he spoke on what is being proposed with the small window placard.

“You can put hyperlinks into that document that would direct people to the current business owners’ webpage, so that they can see immediately... some history of (their) building and… take you to a website to (their) building,” Holub said.

Holub said in 2003 he wrote historical documents to establish a walking tour of the downtown square which he gave to the Graham Convention and Visitors Bureau in 2004.

“It was really an outburst of an idea that I had two years earlier, and I decided that there’s a lot of people who’ve lived in Graham most of their lives and have no clue what any of these buildings are around the square,” he said.

Since that time, many of the buildings on the tour have changed hands and appearances. Holub, along with Old Post Office Museum and Art Center Board of Directors President Carter Pettit, worked on a more modern approach.

“It’s basically a QR code and what we’ll have on it is this virtual tour. ...If you (scan) this (QR code example)... it’ll take you straight to the Old Post Office Museum’s webpage,” Holub said. “Now, what’s really neat about this is that it’s pretty light, it’s not that heavy.”

Holub said that anything on the webpage that goes with the QR code can be changed as they are early on in the proposed concept.

The goal of the project is to generate interest around the square with the buildings and for visitors and locals to have some way to see the historic downtown properties. Holub said the concept serves as a non-invasive way to highlight the history of the downtown businesses.

“It’s just another social media opportunity for anybody that owns that building, what they’re doing,” Pettit said. “They can certainly tell us ‘How do you describe your business?’ We’re not going to write it like we want it. We want to hear from them.”

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