Woodkirk Stone
ATLANTA
Sites of African American history, a suburban Atlanta neighborhood, and a rural fairground are among the 10 Places in Peril named this year by the Georgia Trust For Historic Preservation.
Mark McDonald, chairman and CEO of the trust, said on Wednesday the list is intended to highlight sites in the state that are of historical significance, face a real threat or are representative of preservation concerns. wider.
Some of the sites include:
– Ansley Park, a suburban Atlanta neighborhood where many homes have been demolished and replaced with more modern structures. Although Ansley Park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the structures are not protected from demolition by a local ordinance. The trust says Ansley Park is “near a point of no return” and could be removed from the national registry.
– Chattahoochee Brick Company in Atlanta, a former factory that used convict labor under harsh conditions to make bricks for much of its existence. Today the historic structures have been demolished, but confidence suggests the site should be preserved to honor those who worked there and showcase its history.
– Gay Fairgrounds in the town of Gay in Meriwether County. The grounds host a biannual fair in a complex that includes 11 historic buildings, including a former peach and cotton gin packing factory. The trust says the buildings are neglected because they are only used twice a year and warns that they are not protected by a local ordinance.
– Georgia B. Williams Nursing Home in Camilla, a maternity hospital for African-American mothers in isolation. Managed by Beatrice Borders, the trust says 6,000 mothers gave birth there. The house has been vacant since 2004 and is now uninhabitable, making it more likely to be demolished.
– The Episcopal School of the Good Shepherd near Brunswick, which is part of a historic African-American community. The school and adjoining church were founded by Anna Ellison Butler Alexander, who was appointed the first African-American deaconess in the Episcopal Church in 1907. In 1998, Alexander was appointed a Saint of Georgia by the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. The school has suffered weather damage and the church is running out of money to take care of it.
– The Imperial Hotel in Thomasville, built in 1949 and operated until 1969 as the only hotel in the city for black travelers. The building was then used as offices, but has been vacant since 2001. It has recently been stabilized but still lacks long-term use.
– Red Hill Prison Cemetery in Milledgeville, home to 600 graves of people who died while imprisoned at Old State Prison Farm. License plates made by prisoners marked graves with numbers. The site has been unattended since 1937 and is overgrown. License plate markers are rusty and some graves appear to be unmarked.
– Red Oak Creek covered bridge in Woodbury. The Meriwether County Bridge was built in the 1840s by Horace King or his son. King, who was born a slave in South Carolina, built dozens of bridges in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, but the Red Oak Creek Bridge is the only one connected to him that continues to carry traffic. A recent accident damaged several structural braces inside the bridge.
– Ruins of the thicket in Darien. which include the tabby ruins of a sugar mill and rum distillery. The site also includes the ruins of four former slave quarters. After being hit by a hurricane in 1824, operations ceased at the mill and the land was converted to a cotton plantation. The ruins erode into a tidal stream. The walls of the mill collapsed and a building was completely lost.
– West Broad Street School in Athens, with three structures built to educate African Americans during segregation. The Clarke County School District has offered to demolish the buildings to build a new kindergarten. The district has agreed to reconsider its plans and consider reusing the existing buildings.