Print

History: Passing Over A Watershed in Gainesville

Posted 1:36PM on Thursday 13th February 2003 ( 22 years ago )
If you mess around with history long enough, I'm convinced you will come to the conclusion that every community ... every culture, for that matter ... comes to a watershed point every now and then. it's a point at which its past history continues to have a major influence on its future, and yet a point at which you know the community is not going to hold on to the traditions of the past. It is always difficult to spot these watershed moments when they are happening, so 1 am not sure, but I think we witnessed one the other night right here in Gainesville ... one of these moments when we celebrated what we have been and determined to take the best forward with us, and yet turned loose and moved into the future with a great deal of excitement.

They called it an intermission party'' and it marked the closing of the Georgia Mountain History Museum in Gainesville's neuvo-architecture old fire station. All the materials in that old museum will now be inventoried and evaluated and prepared to go into the $4-million building for the new Northeast Georgia History Center being built on the Brenau University campus.

For those of you not aware of it, this region has a very rich history and Gainesville's old museum has a rather extensive collection of artifacts and information explaining that history. There was information about the Indians and early settlers; a room on General James Longstreet; the textile industry and the poultry industry; a collection on the black community', information on medicine, old telephone equipment, fire fighting. And a magnificent collection of FZ Dodd memorabilia, from the creator of the comic strip Mark Trail. There's a lot more, but that gives you an idea.

Most of that will go forward to the new building, but the new History Center is going to be much more than just a museum. It will tell us about our past, and what we need to take with us as we pass over the watershed. And, hopefully, we will move into a better world because of what we have learned.

This is Gordon Sawyer, from a window on historic Green Street.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2003/2/183234

© Copyright 2015 AccessNorthGa.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.