The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation has released its list of “Places in Peril.”
Some of the sites listed are threatened due to redevelopment of the areas, such as teardowns in Atlanta’s historic neighborhoods. With a booming housing market, many homes in historic neighborhoods are being bought by developers and torn down, replaced with new homes that may not fit in with other traditional designs in the area.
Bobby Jones Golf Course, one of the earliest public courses in the City of Atlanta, is also under threat from redevelopment. A plan for Atlanta Memorial Park recommended that the course be severely altered and converted into a nine-hole course that would not use the existing clubhouse. Often overlooked, the course played a pivotal role in civil rights in Atlanta. According to a New York Times article on the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Holmes v. Atlanta, that case resulted in the first real implementation of desegregation in Atlanta.
From the New York Times piece: “When most people think of desegregation, they think of Brown v. Board of Education. Brown was rendered a full year earlier, but the case filed by the Holmeses, all now deceased, had a more immediate effect. “The first scene of court-ordered desegregation in Georgia was a golf course rather than a school house,” wrote the Atlanta historians Norman Shavin and Bruce Galpin in “Atlanta: Triumph of a People.”
Other sites on the list include more rural locations with a lack of resources for restoration purposes. The Hawks Children’s Library in Jackson is one of only six libraries remaining from an effort by early 20th century optometrist and philanthropist Alfred King Hawks to build libraries in rural towns throughout Georgia. The library was designed by prominent Atlanta architect J. Neel Reed in 1924 and served as the Butts County library until 1992. The county used it as offices after that until 2006 when deferred maintenance led to a roof collapse that badly damaged the interior of the building. The library was close to demolition but was saved at the last minute by the city. The roof was replaced but much work needs to be done to fix the interior. Jackson currently does not have the funds required for the restoration.
Another library, the Norcross Woman’s Club Old Library, is facing demolition due to development. After approaching a number of philanthropists, including Andrew Carnegie, by 1921 the club had raised enough funds to build the first library in Gwinnett County. In 1966, the library having grown to 24,000 books and 1,400 members, a new building was constructed. The building has been used as a storage facility and a country store by the Norcross Women’s Club but finding funding for the maintenance needs is difficult. The vacant lot next door makes it a prime location for development and Norcross has rejected a historic preservation ordinance for the building.
Other sites on the list include the Riverside Cemetery in Macon, threatened due to an I-75 interchange plan, the Johns Homestead, one of the earliest homes in Tucker, the Hudson-Nash House and Cemetery in Lilburn, the Gene Theater in McRae, named after Georgia governor and Telfair County native Eugene Talmadge, the Claflin School in Columbus, built to educate the African-American community after the Civil War, and the Children of Israel Synagogue and Court of Ordinary in Augusta, the oldest synagogue still standing in Georgia.
The Georgia Trust suggests ten ways to help save the Places in Peril. Several of the ways are some version of Spread the Word. Oftentimes, these historic places are easily overlooked as they are in disrepair or out of use. With some attention from the Georgia Trust and the communities, that need not be so.
Read more: http://www.georgiatrust.org/news/2016places.php
