Fort McClellan has some interesting buildings. The fort, as it were, is no longer a fort. It’s an area of Anniston, Ala., that is being redeveloped – officer housing, for example, is now a residential development.
The fort was closed as part of a 1995 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). On the 22,000-acre fort, there are a multitude of buildings – including some, like a 90-year-old barracks, that are no longer in use.
Is that a historic building? Is it worth saving?
These are the type of questions that arise after BRAC – when redevelopment discussions begin. They’re the type of questions being raised here in Athens. What buildings on the Navy Supply Corps School are considered historic? What buildings are worth saving? What aren’t worth saving?
Seven buildings on the Navy Supply Corps School campus fall into the Oglethorpe Avenue Historic District. Several others don’t. Those seven buildings were built between 1897 and 1917. But, most of the buildings on the Navy School were built after June 1953. Would it be any great loss to the community if an edifice built in 1953 is razed?
So, what is historic? How do you define the term?
The seven historic buildings on the Navy School are: Pound Hall (1917), Miller Hall (1917), Carnegie Library (1910), Rhodes Hall (1906), Winnie Davis Hall (1902), Quarters A or the Cobb House (1908) and Quarters B or the President’s House (1897). There’s little debate among those leading the way toward redevelopment that these buildings should be saved.
Most likely, some of the other, less historic buildings will also be saved. At the same time, some of the less-historic buildings, and some of the housing on the base, will probably be razed to allow for new development. Maybe in 150 years, that new development will be considered historic.
This is a similar discussion to one residents and leaders held last year in Hartwell. One building, for example, is 25 years old and another was about 40 years old.
In November 2005, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit group based in Atlanta that works to protect historic places in the state, released its first ever “Places in Peril” list – 10 places around Georgia that are most in danger of being destroyed. Downtown Hartwell was on the list.
Again, it boils down to: How does one define historic?