WINDER — For years, a small group of Winder residents fought to save the Granite Hotel. Now that the turn-of-the-century hotel is in its final days, the city’s historical society is fighting to save its memory.
The Barrow County Historical Society, which runs the county’s museum, has been seeking stories and old photos of the hotel for months, planning to turn the remembrances into a brochure or a display in the museum.
The group hasn’t had a single submission, said Kathy White, president of the historical society.
That’s worrisome because the company that’s been hired to take down the dilapidated building is scheduled to start demolition any day now, White said. Cummins Enterprises received the permit it needs to start demolishing the building on Jan. 26, and already has started to secure the site in preparation for the work.
“They already have the chain-link fence up around it,” White said.
The Winder City Council and local historical preservationists have argued for more than five years whether to demolish or renovate the two-story granite behemoth at the corner of Athens and North Broad streets.
The council finalized the decision in December when members voted to pay Cummins $178,000 to take it down. The work will take several weeks, city officials said.
The area now occupied by the hotel will be turned into a pocket park as part of the city’s upcoming streetscape project.
While city officials have long planned to incorporate the granite from the old hotel into projects throughout the city, White and other historic preservationists would like to give locals and future visitors information about the city’s connection to the old landmark.
“We will continue to collect people’s memories because that’s all we have left,” White said. “We would still write something up if we had enough to fill a brochure. We have brochures about the covered bridges that aren’t here anymore and some of the other things that aren’t here anymore.”
The hotel was built in 1899 to give newcomers a place to stay while they built homes. It fell into disrepair and ill reputation after the 1940s and closed in the 1970s, according to local preservationist Helen Arnold Person. Later, the bottom floor was leased out as shop space.
The Winder Downtown Development Authority purchased the hotel in December 2004 with $200,000 provided by the city. The authority originally planned to demolish the building and use the corner lot for parking, but public outcry stopped the demolition.
Several developers have made bids to buy the building from the DDA in the years since, but financing snags have kept anyone from following through with renovation plans.
City officials spent at least $230,000 to stabilize the structure since they purchased it, but were reticent to invest any more money into preservation.
In 2010, the council unanimously turned down a $500,000 grant from the state Department of Community Affairs because they did not want to spend $729,000 in matching funds to renovate the old building.