Downtown business owners try to keep smiling amid pandemic - 1736 Magazine, Summer 2020

More documents

Info

Most metro area residents have heard of the Great Fire of 1916, which burned many businesses in downtown and homes in the Olde Town neighborhood. But very few know about an equally devastating fire in 1829. That blaze, on April 3, destroyed parts of downtown and nearly 850 homes. Augusta was much smaller then, so the damage had an even greater impact on the pre- Industrial Revolution town. The aftermath was severe enough that city leaders passed an ordinance requiring buildings in certain areas be made of brick instead of wood. Another fire in 1858 resulted in the city getting a 360-degree view of the marble obelisk in front of the Municipal Building on Greene Street. The 172-year-old monument marks the burial place of two of Georgia’s three signers of the Declaration of Independence – George Walton and Lyman Hall. Monument Street, the north-south thoroughfare cut in the middle of the 500 block, was not the result of forward-thinking city planners – it was the result of a fire that burned down buildings blocking its view. Everyone got so used to seeing the monument from Broad Street that the structures were never rebuilt. And 1921 was a banner year for fires – five major buildings were destroyed, including the Bon Air Hotel (which was rebuilt); the Albion Hotel (replaced by Richmond Hotel two years later); The Augusta Chronicle (which moved into the Augusta Herald building); and the Harrison and Johnson buildings (both of which were gutted and rebuilt). Augusta’s first serious epidemic showed up in 1839 – yellow fever. It afflicted about half the town’s residents, killing 240 of them, including one of the founders of the Medical College of Georgia, Dr. Milton Antony, who contracted the disease while tending to the sick. The disease came back in 1854. “The community, panic stricken, are fleeing in every direction to escape its ravages,” The Chronicle reported that year. Augusta residents have a “camping party” outdoors following the 1886 earthquake that rocked the Southeast. For a time, people felt safer outdoors than in buildings. 64 | 1736magazine.com
An Augusta Chronicle newspaper clipping from 1918 reports on the outbreak of Spanish flu at Camp Hancock, the Army installation that later became Fort Gordon. But the global epidemic regarded by some as the deadliest in recorded history – the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic – is believed to have been brought to Augusta by soldiers arriving in Augusta by train. Troop transports from Fort Riley, Kan., and Camp Grant, Ill., are said to have introduced the influenza strain to Augusta through Camp Hancock, the forerunner to Fort Gordon. On Sept. 30, two soldiers were in the camp infirmary with flu-like symptoms. On Oct. 1, the number skyrocketed to 716. By the end of October, there were 3,000 hospitalized at the camp; 52 died in a single week, according to “The Story of Augusta” by Edward J. Cashin. “The Board of Health quarantined the Camp and closed all schools, churches and theaters in Augusta until the worst was over in late November,” Cashin wrote. Like many cities, Augusta was gripped by fear and its businesses suffered. Businessman Jack Wells, for example, opened his Wells Theater right before the pandemic hit. The venue folded and the property reopened the next year as the Imperial Theatre, which it remains today. Some 30,000 Georgians died from the Spanish flu by the time the pandemic ended in 1919. Interestingly, military trains also spread the virus to Army camps near Atlanta, Macon, and Columbus before it spread into the cities themselves. A 1921 fire destroyed the upper 700 block of Broad Street, including the Albion Hotel, shown in this photo along with the remains of the Harrison Building. 1736magazine.com | 65
Page 1:
WATERWAYS EDITION I SUMMER 2020 ISS
Page 4 and 5:
PICTURE THIS 4 | 1736magazine.com
Page 6 and 7:
ON THE STREET CONSUMER SPENDING IS
Page 8 and 9:
COVER STORY Shelley Craft, owner of
Page 10:
Whiskey Bar Kitchen associates, fro
Page 13 and 14: Penelope Ballas-Stewart, who manage
Page 15 and 16: normally a breeding ground for viol
Page 17 and 18: Story by DAMON CLINE | Photos by MI
Page 19 and 20: Construction workers with AFB Concr
Page 22 and 23: DOWNTOWN LIVING continued from 20 $
Page 24 and 25: Nan Connell (left), widow of Georgi
Page 26 and 27: TRACKING CUSTOMERS FOLLOWING THE DI
Page 28 and 29: TRACKING CUSTOMERS continued from 2
Page 30 and 31: OFFICE DEMAND The SunTrust Building
Page 32 and 33: OFFICE DEMAND continued from 31 emp
Page 34 and 35: The conference room in Balch & Bing
Page 36: TOURISM A view from the top of the
Page 39 and 40: AMPHITHEATER RIGHT: Color-coded ban
Page 41 and 42: Alex Wier, founder and chief creati
Page 43 and 44: 1736magazine.com | 43
Page 45 and 46: named executive director of Turn Ba
Page 47 and 48: Augusta Tomorrow has updated its or
Page 49 and 50: TOURISM continued from 40 was postp
Page 51 and 52: Augusta native Ashley Brown was nam
Page 54 and 55: Three houses on Metcalf Street in A
Page 56 and 57: A map produced for a Georgia Conser
Page 58: LaDonna Doleman, manager of Golden
Page 61 and 62: The flood of 1908 put more than 100
Page 63: The sound, she said, “was like th
Page 68 and 69: BRIEFING By DAMON CLINE HITS & MISS
Page 70 and 71: GRADING DOWNTOWN 6.5 5.5 8.0 1.0 By
Page 72: T72 Sunday, August 23, 2020
show all

Downtown business owners try to keep smiling amid pandemic - 1736 Magazine, Summer 2020

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?