Winter 2009 - The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation

AROUND | the state
Historic Augusta, Inc. | John Harpring
leaders built a canal in 1845 to generate power and to
stimulate the local economy. Mills and factories of
all types were built along its banks, and workers came
from the surrounding countryside to find employment.
During the Civil War, Augusta was among the few
significant manufacturing centers in the South. After
an expansion in the volume of the canal after the war,
large impressive cotton mills, still evident today, were
built along the waterway.
These and other important factors have helped to
shape the built environment of the city. The Medical
College of Georgia, founded in Augusta in 1828,
spurred a large medical community that adds a cosmopolitan
feel to the community. Fort Gordon was founded
nearby in 1940, continuing a long military tradition
in the city that includes the former U.S. Arsenal, now
the campus of Augusta State University. After World
War II, large industries established themselves south
of downtown, and today the local economy is diverse,
churning out chemicals, paper, golf cars, household
products and other global consumer goods. As its
historic commercial center, Augusta’s Broad Street is
enjoying a renaissance with restaurants, unique shops,
Houghton School, Pinched Gut Historic District (Olde Town)
night life and loft apartments.
Preservation began in Augusta early in the 20th
centry, when the Daughters of the American Revolution
saved Meadow Garden (c. 1791), and opened it as
a shrine in 1901. Home to George Walton, a Signer of
the Declaration of Independence, it remains the oldest
house museum in the state. Adaptive use of several
buildings came in the 1920s and 1930s, including the
Old Medical College (1835, converted to a garden center)
and the Old Academy of Richmond County (1802,
converted into a library), both of which await a new
purpose today. The impressive Federal style mansion
known as Ware’s Folly (1818) has been used as the
Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art since 1937, and the
Fruitlands manor house (1853) was converted for use
as the clubhouse of the Augusta National Golf Club in
1930.
After World War II more preservation efforts continued
for individual sites such as the Ezekiel Harris
House (c. 1797), and the Old Government House
(1801). A effort to save the 1820 Richmond County
Courthouse was the subject of a novel called Colonel
Effingham’s Raid by native son Berry Fleming that
was turned into a popular movie in 1946. The fictionalized
story was the thinly veiled tale of the rallying of
public support for preservation. Although the courthouse
was ultimately replaced, its loss and that of key
historic buildings spurred a preservation consciousness
in the community. Historic Augusta was founded in
1965, focusing on neighborhoods and broader preservation
issues. Its 44-year history includes numerous
accomplishments that it instigated, or that it influenced
through its members.
Preservation success stories in Augusta are many
and include: the rescue of the former Sacred Heart
Catholic Church (1898) by the Knox Foundation as
a cultural center; the rehabilitation of the Augusta
Cotton Exchange (1887), now used as a bank; the
revitalization of the Summerville Neighborhood as
Augusta’s premier historic residential area; the revitalization
of the Broad Street Historic District by
Main Street Augusta and continuing under the Augusta
Downtown Development Authority; ongoing efforts
to revitalize the Pinched Gut Historic District on the
east side of Downtown, also known as Olde Town;
the rehabilitation of the home of Lucy Craft Laney (c.
1917) as a museum of black history; and the creation
of the Augusta Canal National Heritage Area operated
by the Augusta Canal Authority. Many of the historic
churches downtown and in Summerville have ongoing
6 The Rambler Winter 2009