Georgia Magazine - May 2020 - 22

Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, 1516 Peachtree St. N.W., Atlanta.
(404) 881-9980. georgiatrust.org.

The 2020 Places in Peril list
For the 15th year, the Georgia Trust for Historic Places has published a list of the state's most endangered historic, archaeological
and cultural resources. The entries cover structures, sites, districts and
landscapes that have been adversely affected by various factors, including neglect and encroaching development. The trust works with
individuals, organizations and communities to salvage the properties
before they are lost to posterity.
* Antioch Baptist Church, Crawfordville, Taliaferro County: Built
in 1899 for a congregation of freed slaves, the church is no
longer in use.
* Asbury United Methodist Church, Savannah, Chatham County:
The Abercorn Street church dates to 1887 and is the only African
American United Methodist congregation in the city's Victorian
District.
* Cary Reynolds Elementary School, Doraville, DeKalb County:
Designed by noted architect John Portman, the 1961 school is part
of the midcentury Northwoods Historic District.
* Central State Hospital, Milledgeville, Baldwin County: The state's
first psychiatric hospital anchors an almost 2,000-acre campus
with about 200 buildings, some of which date to 1842. The site was
closed in 2013.
* Fountain (Stone) Hall, Atlanta, Fulton County: Listed on the
National Register of Historic Places, the hall was built in 1882 and
is still a landmark on the Atlanta University campus. It was initially
called Stone Hall, but after it became part of Morris Brown College
in the 1930s, the name was changed to honor the school's former
president, Bishop William A. Fountain.
* Heritage Park, Griffin, Spalding County: Included in this community space is the Rosenwald School, built in 1929 with funds raised
by American educator Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald
of Sears, Roebuck and Co. to educate African American students.

Georgia Magazine

May 2020

Nolan Crossroads, Bostwick
* John Nelson Deming Home, Valdosta, Lowndes County:
Local craftsman John Deming left his mark on this city by building
impressive homes from the late 1800s through the 1920s. His own
home was built in 1898 and has been vacant since 2006.
* Masonic Lodge No. 238, Dalton, Whitfield County: When constructed in 1915, this building sat in the middle of Dalton's black
community. Its second floor hosted Masonic meetings for African
American members.
* Nolan Crossroads, Bostwick, Morgan County: Once part of a
plantation, this grouping of buildings represents the transition from
a slavery-based to a sharecropping agricultural economy. The
oldest structure was built in 1817; the main neoclassical house
went up in 1905. The property also includes a former commissary, a
mule barn and tenant farmhouses.
* Rose Hill School, Porterdale, Newton County: The Bibb Manufacturing Co. built this school in 1937 for children of the the area's
black mill workers. It was the only African American school in
Porterdale for many years.

MOTORSPORTMEDIA / HALSTON PITMAN / NICK WOOLEVER

MADISONMORGAN CONSERVANCY

The Madison-Morgan Conservancy's Endangered
Properties Revolving Fund helped secure and stabilize
the Foster-Thomason-Miller House until a buyer agreed
to conserve and rehab the property. The house was on
the Georgia Trust's 2018 Places in Peril list. From left
are Neil Horstman, Mark McDonald, Christine McCauley
Watts, Theresa Pippin and Robert Trulock.

ers with buyers willing to make appropriate renovations, then return any
proceeds from the property's sale back to the fund for future use. The trust
then holds an easement, or legal right, to guarantee historic integrity, and
that easement can be on an open space, a façade or an interior. So far,
43 properties have been sold through the fund.
Preserving Georgia's historic sites presents myriad challenges that
don't always end well. In the case of the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace,
the garden was demolished despite protests from various voices, including
McDonald's.
Preservation often makes for difficult conversations, particularly as
communities grapple with how to tell the stories of plantations and the
state's civil rights record. But McDonald is open to having those conversations.
"We need to take on the truth, take on history accurately and be
[aware] of all cultures and ways of life," he says. "We need to bring attention
to things that need to be discussed. We're preserving history, not beauty."
H.M. Cauley is a freelance writer from Atlanta.

http://www.georgiatrust.org

Georgia Magazine - May 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - May 2020