The city of Clarkesville is once again welcoming visitors to its community house – 81 years after it first opened.
Clarkesville city officials hosted an open house Thursday for the newly-renovated facility on Mary Street. The informal gathering gave the public an opportunity to see the historic building, which has been closed and idle for years.
The 2,400-square-foot facility includes a large gathering room and kitchen and may now be rented for events through the city hall.
A not so simpler time
Thursday’s open house hearkened back to another open house in 1942. That’s the year, according to archived news reports, that the Mary Street House opened. Several civic organizations teamed up to build the original structure. They broke ground for the facility in 1941, at a time when the community was slowly coming out of the Great Depression. Money was scarce, and the country was about to enter World War II.
The first open house at the property was held in January 1942.
Fast forward eight decades later, and the facility has been renovated to modern specifications with central heating and air conditioning, recessed LED lighting, and is handicap accessible. The inside of the building looks nothing like its former self. However, the city kept two features from the previous decorum.
The rock fireplace remains intact, and a painting that hung on the wall was kept and placed in storage for the time being. The painting measures 4’x16’ and is in good condition. According to Clarkesville City Manager Keith Dickerson, the city intends to have it restored and remounted in the future, although they’re unsure of who the artist is.
A dream come true
Dickerson explained that the facility was in bad shape prior to the renovations, which began in December of last year. The roof was leaking. The ceiling had sunk around all of the windows and doorways. The floor and walls had water damage from years of neglect.
When Dickerson first came to the city in 2020, he says this was the first project the city council wanted him to look at and move forward with. The first step was to look at the roof and get it repaired. From there, city officials had several people survey the damage and advise them on the next steps that should be taken.
“We had several people look at it and decided we were going to have to piecemeal our way through it to kind of see where the damage led and made repairs as we went,” Dickerson tells Now Habersham.
He says the project was completed with SPLOST VI funds at a cost of approximately $165,000.
Clarkesville Mayor Barrie Aycock was on hand for the open house, greeting curious visitors as they came in to see the facility. Asked how she felt about the completion of the project, she stated, “I am on cloud nine!”
“This has been a dream of mine for as long as I have been involved in the city, to restore and resurrect this building. This is certainly a major accomplishment.”
