GAINESVILLE – She is 82-years old but doesn’t look her age; she was birthed from tragedy; a recent facelift has given her renewed prominence; she can tell stories of Gainesville’s past like no one else. She is the Gainesville City Hall.
The white marble, multi-story structure sits adjacent to the downtown pedestrian bridge and sometimes can be missed by visitors, but that could change if voters approve the extension of SPLOST VIII on Tuesday. Revenues from the one-cent sales tax have been earmarked to pay for an extensive remodeling of the grand-old-lady and her conversion into a venue suitable for many occasions.
Gainesville City Manager Bryan Lackey briefed members of the Gainesville City Council at their work session Thursday morning on the sequence of events set to unfold as renovation of the City of Gainesville Administrative Building continues.
Most city functions will relocate to the Henry Ward Way location, leaving City Hall open and available. What happens next at city hall depends upon the SPLOST VIII referendum receiving voter support.
“Hopefully that passes,” Lackey said, “it’s almost a million-dollar renovation…we want to maybe make that (city hall) a little more of an event space tied in with Roosevelt Square, so people who want to do events there will have an indoor space.”
“Apparently there is a big wedding-type movement; people like to have weddings at old city hall buildings,” Lackey told city council. “If anybody wants to hold a reception there it’s a pretty nice space to do that.”
“We might work with Brenau (University) and some of the art that they have,” Lackey continued. “They have a lot of art that they cannot display so we can make an arrangement to put some more art there.”
“There’s a lot of options, there’s a lot of opportunities; we haven’t fleshed all that out yet.”
Such decisions are in the future and depend upon the results of Tuesday’s vote. “Assuming SPLOST passes…it’s a budget year or two down the road,” Lackey explained after the work session.
One of the last entities still occupying City Hall is Communications and Tourism. However, upon completion of renovations at the Administration Building next door, Deb Gravitt and her team will leave City Hall and move into the first floor lobby of the admin building, offering visitors a state-of-the-art welcome center.
But that move won’t end the relationship between Gravitt and the historic building at 117 Jesse Jewel Parkway. It doesn’t take long to realize Gravitt’s love of the history and lore of Gainesville/Hall County, and that includes City Hall.
Gravitt spoke about the time when City Hall was constructed. The devastating tornado in April of 1936 had just leveled most of downtown. President Franklin Roosevelt visited the ruins several days later and pledged to rebuild the city.
Teams from the federal Works Progress Administration soon arrived on scene and, according to an email from Gravitt, “WPA built the Courthouse and the City Hall across from one another because it was symbolic of rebuilding the entire community center. The marble used for both buildings is from Tate, Georgia.”
Gravitt added, “The architectural style of both the Gainesville City Hall and Hall County Court House is a prime example of Art Deco-Public Architecture. President Roosevelt planned to dedicate the building in December of 1937 but was delayed and dedicated the buildings in March of 1938.”
Of additional interest, Gravitt said, “It was used for a police station. We still have one of the jail doors on a storage closet.”
Lackey said he hopes to preserve such historic elements in the redesign of City Hall should funding be approved. He says a recent facelift of the exterior has been well received and he feels the community will support restoration.
“We just cleaned it up on the outside a year ago, so it’s shining, the marble is shining over there which looks great,” he said, and that he hopes to see restoration to the inside of the historic structure become a reality.
Lackey invites community input on what they would like to see happen to City Hall if SPLOST passes and renovations are approved. You can contact Lackey and his staff by clicking here and using the information on the city’s website.
