Rare documents to make move with state archives

Posted 7:34AM on Tuesday 9th April 2002 ( 23 years ago )

ATLANTA - A letter by George Washington and a copy of the royal charter for the colony of Georgia are among articles being prepared for a move from the State Archives Building in downtown Atlanta. By next March, the records are scheduled to be transferred to a new building next to Clayton College & State University in Morrow, south of Atlanta. The 37-year-old Archives building's structure is failing, mainly because of vibrations from nearby downtown traffic. To renovate the building and upgrade its interior would cost $40 million. Constructing a new one costs $22 million. The new four-story building will be 177,000 square feet, compared to 144,000 square feet now. Since June, archivists have made an inventory of records and are nearly done, Archives Director David Carmicheal said. Also, workers are recording the documents on a computer database for the first time, he said. Some 50 staffers are transferring routine documents from 40,000 old boxes to new boxes sturdy enough for the journey. ``It's somewhat boring,'' staffer Sherrie Kiaukaras said. But occasionally she'll chance upon something special, such as letters from Franklin D. Roosevelt and Jimmy Carter. ``Getting to actually touch them was neat,'' Kiaukaras said. The archives also house 10,000 state and county maps, 20,000 books and periodicals, 80,000 rolls of microfilm, 100,000 photographs and 1.5 million land grants and property maps. State archivists are concerned about how the move could affect a signature by Button Gwinnett, one of three Georgians to sign the Declaration of Independence. It is on a 1767 tax record that is locked in a cage along with other treasures including Washington's letter. In the June 14, 1783, letter, Washington wrote of his resignation as commander of the Continental Army to Gov. Lyman Hall, who along with Gwinnett and George Walton also signed the Declaration of Independence. There is also a copy of the 1732 charter creating the Georgia colony. The original is in London. ``We'll move those things ourselves and won't let the movers touch them,'' Carmichael said.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/4/196257