Helen Person
COLUMN: Important to save historic structure
The Granite Hotel represents our beginning. It is far more than the only granite building of its size left in the state of Georgia. It is one of the only buildings we have left that tells our earliest stories. Like Winder, it represents survival.
The Granite Hotel has been virtually ignored for the past half-century save the existence of a variety of small retailers on its street level. The Granite Hotel was the social center for Winder. It hosted weddings, house parties, civic meetings and social gatherings for the city’s elite.
The Granite Hotel has been the subject of much debate the past few years. For whatever reason, the city did not impress upon the previous owner to comply with the ordinance requiring property owners to keep their buildings in good repair. For whatever reason, after the city purchased the hotel and the public demanded it be restored, not razed, the city gave a developer a quarter of a million dollars without diligent oversight to ensure he was delivering on his promises. The building has been allowed to reach the point that an individual investor cannot expect to recover his investment within a time frame that would make purchasing the hotel a wise investment.
Some on the city council have vowed not to spend another cent on the hotel, but no plan has been floated beyond building a wall at the city’s amphitheater with the hotel’s granite blocks. Oh, and let’s not forget the commemorative plaque that will acknowledge the hotel’s contribution to the wall. That’ll really pack ‘em in.
So what’s the plan? Another vacant lot taking up 1/3 of a block in downtown Winder? What will it cost in dollars to demolish the building? How many dollars will be spent to haul away the over 50,000 granite blocks, not to mention the interior structural elements that are, frankly, quite sturdy — I just explored the inside of the building two weeks ago so I speak with some authority on this.
What do you plan to put in its place? Or are we planning another green space to match the one left by the demolition of the old First Baptist Church twoyearsagothisweek? Ormaybe we’re looking at a parking garage at the most iconic intersection in downtown Winder — the place from which Barrow County was birthed and where Wiley Bush had the wisdom to build a place to welcome travelers, first to Jug Tavern and then to Winder where they decided to put down roots and contribute to the building of the town? The building may be removed from the landscape, but like the Baptist Church, its spirit will linger in the collective memory far into the future. If the building is demolished, the city sends an “all clear” to the property owners who have turned a blind eye to their deteriorating buildings. If the Winder City Council chooses to attempt to sweep away the missteps of the past, they may as well break out the bulldozers and start a wholesale teardown trend that will take most of a century for the city to recover.
We have an opportunity to prove that Winder is a city that believes in the power of the community through a partnership with local, state and federal government, local community groups and individuals to pool their resources and get the heartbeat of the county off life support. We can do this now or we can pay much more than $729,000 sometime in the future in an attempt to rectify the past, but the buildings of our founding will be gone and cannot be replaced. We have an opportunity now to reverse the downward spiral and pump the lifeblood of hospitality and vibrancy back into downtown Winder, the county seat.
We can look at The Granite Hotel, what it can mean as a community center for the county and ask that age old traveling question: “How much longer ‘til we get there?”
Helen Person is a columnist for the Barrow Journal. E-mail comments about this column to helenperson@windstream.net.
The Granite Hotel has been the subject of much debate the past few years. For whatever reason, the city did not impress upon the previous owner to comply with the ordinance requiring property owners to keep their buildings in good repair. For whatever reason, after the city purchased the hotel and the public demanded it be restored, not razed, the city gave a developer a quarter of a million dollars without diligent oversight to ensure he was delivering on his promises. The building has been allowed to reach the point that an individual investor cannot expect to recover his investment within a time frame that would make purchasing the hotel a wise investment.
Some on the city council have vowed not to spend another cent on the hotel, but no plan has been floated beyond building a wall at the city’s amphitheater with the hotel’s granite blocks. Oh, and let’s not forget the commemorative plaque that will acknowledge the hotel’s contribution to the wall. That’ll really pack ‘em in.
So what’s the plan? Another vacant lot taking up 1/3 of a block in downtown Winder? What will it cost in dollars to demolish the building? How many dollars will be spent to haul away the over 50,000 granite blocks, not to mention the interior structural elements that are, frankly, quite sturdy — I just explored the inside of the building two weeks ago so I speak with some authority on this.
What do you plan to put in its place? Or are we planning another green space to match the one left by the demolition of the old First Baptist Church twoyearsagothisweek? Ormaybe we’re looking at a parking garage at the most iconic intersection in downtown Winder — the place from which Barrow County was birthed and where Wiley Bush had the wisdom to build a place to welcome travelers, first to Jug Tavern and then to Winder where they decided to put down roots and contribute to the building of the town? The building may be removed from the landscape, but like the Baptist Church, its spirit will linger in the collective memory far into the future. If the building is demolished, the city sends an “all clear” to the property owners who have turned a blind eye to their deteriorating buildings. If the Winder City Council chooses to attempt to sweep away the missteps of the past, they may as well break out the bulldozers and start a wholesale teardown trend that will take most of a century for the city to recover.
We have an opportunity to prove that Winder is a city that believes in the power of the community through a partnership with local, state and federal government, local community groups and individuals to pool their resources and get the heartbeat of the county off life support. We can do this now or we can pay much more than $729,000 sometime in the future in an attempt to rectify the past, but the buildings of our founding will be gone and cannot be replaced. We have an opportunity now to reverse the downward spiral and pump the lifeblood of hospitality and vibrancy back into downtown Winder, the county seat.
We can look at The Granite Hotel, what it can mean as a community center for the county and ask that age old traveling question: “How much longer ‘til we get there?”
Helen Person is a columnist for the Barrow Journal. E-mail comments about this column to helenperson@windstream.net.
1. parking... there is little to no parking available as it is.. why would anyone open a business or buy a residence where they can't park.
2. cost.... we are broke... as a community that is barely getting by, why would we spend any money to repair a building with no use.
3. cost of destruction... how about putting some people to work tearing it down and then some more to work making a downtown park or parking facility. Both of which the downtown area needs.
1: Restore it. This costs a lot of money, and the city is broke. I don't mind a small tax increase to pay for it. Make a special purpose tax and put it to a vote.
$729k spread out over half of Winder's population is only $12/month for a single year. I don't argue against its historical value, but the city is broke and has priorities with much more serious and immediate consequences, like safety and health.
2: Spend a little money to fix up the roof (or throw a tarp over it) so it won't get worse, and hope we can recover enough to where restoring it is affordable. We should probably do this regardless of the choice since even tearing it down takes time to plan.
3: Tear it down. This opens a lot of choices, but does cause some issues for historic preservation. It's more interesting for a tour guide to tell the history of a building that visitors can see.
An open lot right in the middle of a fairly nice area with a lot of traffic is more appealing to an investor. The church's lot is in a low traffic spot in an outlier recession.
I like option 1. This country was built on deciding its direction by popular vote (though it has some balances like the electoral college at the national level), so it makes sense that everyone should have a chance to register their vision of Winder's future directly. If you can't get enough people willing to pay the tax, then it's on you and the historical society to raise that money in other ways.
Great idea! A quarter of a million dollars was wasted already so let’s add another three quarters of a million dollars to the problem. In this economy when do you expect to recover the million dollars for this project? Down town Winder is a dead issue. Why would anyone want to take an 8 mile detour from 316 to fight the traffic through Winder to eat at any of the fast food restaurants? Even Wal-Mart knew to build outside the city limits away from the down town traffic. Hibbert Sports moved from Winder to 316. To ride from Lee Street to Barrow Regional could take up to 30 minutes on a busy day. During that trip through winder you’re treated to red lights, fast food, pawn shops, grocery stores, used car lots and if you’re lucky a loud train so you can sit at the intersection and watch the light change to green several times.
Why does Gwinnett have 50 parks all which are great to visit, yet Barrow doesn’t have one. Why do you think Barrow is having budget issues? Because people will live here, but there is nothing to do here. If you want a dinner and a movie you have to go to Gwinnett or Athens. If you want to go bowling or shopping you have to go to Gwinnett or Athens. If you want to take your kids to a park with a play ground that is up to date or an indoor pool you have to go to Gwinnett or Athens.
It all comes down to tax dollars. Without a reason for people to stop and spend their money in this county, the tax burden will always fall heavily on the residents in this county. If Barrow had an area with half of the business the Mall of Georgia sees every weekend, the money for the Granite Hotel would easily be available. Mrs. Helen Person I’m sorry but in my opinion to spend “$729,000 in an attempt to rectify the past” will only delay Winder and Barrow County’s future.
I didn't know until I went to its website that Statham has walking trails. It looks like a few buildings on the side of the road if that's as far as you look.
It's just that Winder is the county seat, and its only attraction is so far from downtown that you'd never know it was a part of Winder if you didn't look too deep.
A tiny portion of that 3/4 million could be used to provide two buses between Barrow Crossing and downtown with a stop at Fort Yargo.
You'd never have to wait too long for a bus (it could stop and return before it hits the big traffic jam areas--we might need some more crossing signals though), and it would make downtown Winder a destination just for the number of people who would try the bus just to see where it went.
There's a whole industry built around renting buses out, so we wouldn't even need to buy the buses until we knew if it would work.
Quit trying to push this into the taxpayers lap. If it is so damn "historical", the Historical Society should be out looking for none public grant money from private foundations.
ENOUGH!
Barrow Preservation Society does not own The Granite Hotel; we've been trying to assist the DDA in securing grants. The City Council voted in March to apply for this grant knowing what the matching part would be. If they decided not to support the previous vote, that is their choice and I appreciate that these men are voting what they believe to be in the best interest of the city.
Grants cannot be applied for like going into a bank and filling out a loan application. There are grant cycles with specific criteria that must be met. Barrow Preservation has been researching grants and getting our information ready to make application in an effort to help with funding this restoration. Since we do not own the building, though, we are limited in what we can do, but have been making a good faith effort to provide assistance.
Tearing down the Granite Hotel or any other downtown building may sound like a great solution, but it is very temporary. Parks and parking lots do not generate income, but cost city dollars to maintain and monitor. Can you imagine how much waste would have to be disposed from a building the size of the hotel? Building a new building will be equally, if not more, expensive than fixing the building that is already there. If someone were dying to build a new building on the main drag in Winder, they would have already done so at the vacant lot three blocks to the northeast - and it had plenty of parking behind it.
It will be interesting, indeed, to see what ideas the community generates for the building's future.
Keep writing!
gem as the granite heap that sits useless
in a town that is gasping for its monetary
breath! Meanwhile empty and affordable
properties sit vacant in the downtown area
that would make great venues for teens to
gather and socialize in possible music centers
or non-alchohol gaming centers, a movie house,etc..
The teens have nothing to do in this county or
this town of Winder except to gather in a fast
food establishment or cruise the streets as easy
law enforcement targets. I thought our youth was
our most precious resource! Well, maybe we could
use another pawn shop, or liquor store or possibly
another dollar store? The paving projects that
lead to nothing unless you need a burger.
Tear down that building! Winder is looking for
green space for the revitilazation of the downtown
area( I hope!). The land that the Granite Hotel is on
would make great place for an intown park
with benches and a fountain as to where patrons of
the downtown area could stop and and take a break,
read a paper,and spend more time and money enjoying our
little town. Such a park could do nothing but add Charm
to Winder. Thank you.
fixing up City Hall.Now that is a pretty building and to move to the new one that I haven't seen yet was assinine.Parking lots are needed in downtown, Do you really like squeezing around all the extended cab trucks with trailer hitches that are sticking out onto Broad street? Isn't the street narrow enough? The only thing pretty in Winder is Fort Yargo and that is if you dont look across the street from the entrance, Now that is UGLY!!!Take those granite blocks from the hotel and put them in front of the trash accross the park so we don't see it.