Nestled in the Appalachian foothills of Northeast Georgia, the Sautee Nacoochee Community Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to nurturing creativity and protecting the natural and historical resources of the Sautee and Nacoochee Valleys and surrounding area. The SNCA maintains Sautee Nacoochee Center, a thriving cultural and community center housed in a restored rural schoolhouse, offering a Theatre, Gallery, Art Studio, Museum, Environmental Studies Room, and Conference Facilities. The Association has established Sautee Nacoochee as an official Historic District and one of "The 100 Best Small Arts Towns in America."

In the late 1970s a group of forward-looking community members joined together in an effort to protect their beautiful and historic Nacoochee Valley. They were successful in having the Valley placed on the National Register as an historic district. Spurred on by success, the group formed the Sautee-Nacoochee Community Association. Their mission was to conduct preservation work.

By the fall of 1981 the group had submitted a rural preservation study to the State of Georgia; the following May the National Trust for Historic Preservation honored the young organization with an award for its study. SNCA representatives were invited to the White House to receive it. Within months, notice came of a second national award, this one from the American Society of Landscape Architects.

The group then turned to protecting the Sautee Valley and lending support to the local community in cooperative conservation efforts. In the summer of 1986, the Sautee Valley was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Later that same year, the Association made a decision to broaden its mission. The members voted to purchase the Nacoochee School building with the intent of developing an arts and community center to benefit the region. Plans were set in motion for a ten-year renovation project to restore the property and its buildings.