Education Edition - 1736 Magazine, Fall 2019

A mural paying homage to the comedic duo Laurel and Hardy adorns the side of a downtown building in Harlem, Ga. City leaders want to prepare the city
center for impending suburban growth. [MIKE ADAMS/SPECIAL]
The association is working hand-inhand
with the city’s Urban Redevelopment
Authority, which was formed in 2015
to implement the “Harlem City Center
Plan,” a strategy to reverse the disinvestment
from the past few decades and keep
suburban-style development from changing
the city’s “small town” feel.
Many of the changes are already evident.
The city’s old museum and welcome
center was sold by the redevelopment
authority to The Prather Co., which is
marketing the property to restaurateurs.
The museum/welcome center has been
moved a block down North Louisville
Street to the newly restored Columbia
Theater, which has twice the floor space
as the old museum to pay homage to
Harlem’s most famous son – Norvell
“Oliver” Hardy, the portly character from
the famous “Laurel and Hardy” comedy
duo.
The city’s annual Oliver Hardy Festival,
held the first weekend in October each
year, draws tens of thousands of visitors to
the downtown area.
Cook said the expanded museum also
has more space to present cultural displays
about the town and Columbia County
history.
“There are 100,000 people in the county
that have lived here less than 30 years,”
Cook said. “Why not come over to Harlem
and learn about where you’re living. See
what the county actually looked like before
those massive influxes of people.”
The Columbia Theater also has a 50-seat
theater the city plans use for special
events, as well as screenings for secondrun
“dollar theater” films. The museum/
theater complex sits next to Columbia
County’s newly built Harlem library complex,
whose greenspace is used for outdoor
movies and events.
“The library has been a real catalyst for
us,” said Cook, who also serves as director
of the city redevelopment authority.
Cook said the city is working to acquire
the adjacent convenience store near the
corner of Louisville and Milledgeville roads
to expand the the Columbia Theater’s
seating capacity, as well as provide additional
greenspace for the library complex
to create an outdoor amphitheater.
“We’ve already paid an architect to plan
it, so we’ve got the design,” Cook said.
“So in the next five years we should have a
small amphitheater.”
DOWNTOWN LIVING
A fire in 1917 destroyed the old opera
house and several other downtown
buildings, but many historic homes
and buildings are intact, including the
108-year-old Masonic Lodge building on
North Louisville Street, which is believed
to be the oldest commercial building in
Harlem.
The 8,000-square-foot building –
designed by noted architect G. Lloyd
Preacher – was converted earlier this year
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