The historic New Holland Methodist Church will get some new life soon as a group plans to register the structure as a historic place and turn it into a residential development.
Gainesville real estate mogul Frank Norton, Jr. is representing a group of investors that has purchased and wants to preserve the New Holland Methodist Church, but the group members need some help from the community.
"The church really hasn't changed much in character over the last 100-plus years, but we do know there once was a rear stairway off the back of the church and we now have a door two stories up," said Norton. "We'd love to figure out what that looked like. We'd love to understand how some of the church grounds were used, some of the events that were in and around the church grounds, we think those would be of historic significance."
The church last saw a congregation in 2015, but Norton said the building is in good condition.
"The church is in great shape, it's roughly stabilized , we've done some additional work cleaning the church out," Norton said. "Our goal is to have the project complete by the end of the year."
Norton added his family firm has been involved in many historic property conversions, including the first conversions on Green Street and Hunt Tower, and they wanted to be involved in the conversion with the group of investors for the New Holland church project.
"It's one of the most unusual churches in all Northeast Georgia. It was built in the craftsman style, approximately 1904, and this group [of investors] was very empathetic with the historic movement and have invested in other historic structures in the past and felt that this building was too beautiful not to save," Norton said.
Anyone with photos is encouraged to reach out to the Norton Agency by phone (770) 532-0022 or by emailing [email protected].
http://accesswdun.com/article/2018/3/651237/norton-agency-others-work-to-preserve-new-holland-methodist-church