Art & Architecture

Take a Walking Tour into Newnan’s Architectural Past

May 20, 201710 a.m. to Noon

Hosted by Newnan-Coweta Historical Society and Newnan-Coweta Art Association

Coweta County Courthouse, Bette Schumann - 2016

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Art & Architecture 2017Celebrating National Historic Preservation Month

Saturday, May 20, 201710 a.m. to Noon, Downtown Newnan

Established in 1973 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, each May Na-tional Preservation Month is co-sponsored by local preservation groups, state historical societies, and business and civic organizations across the country. During Preservation Month, many events such as Newnan-Coweta Historical Society’s 2017 Art & Architec-ture walking tours are planned to promote historic places to instill national and com-munity pride, promote heritage tourism and show the social and economic benefits of historic preservation.

In celebration of National Historic Preservation Month, as well as Historic Preser-vation and Archaeology Months in Georgia, the State Historic Preservation Division is hosting an online photo contest during May. For details go to http://georgiashpo.org/2017_photocontest — the deadline is May 30, 2017.

For Art & Architecture, NCHS has partnered for the second year with Newnan-Coweta Art Association. Local artists will be stationed around the Court Square and downtown painting scenes of local architecture 10 a.m. - noon Saturday, May 20. Caro-lyn Barron Montessori School students will also be painting around the 1904 Coweta County Courthouse.

Tours depart 10 and 11 a.m. from the Court Square, led by Smith, who will share insights and stories about a sampling of Newnan’s historic business and office buildings. The author of 12 books (11 of which focus on local history), Carla Cook Smith is a former Coweta County resident. Her most recent book, “Historic Newnan 1828-2016” debuted in December 2016 and as of May 2017 is already in its 3rd printing. Smith is also the author of “Perspectives on Coweta County,” “Perspectives on the City of Homes (Newnan),” “Newnan Perspectives,” “Senoia Perspectives,” “Holiday Perspec-tives of Senoia,” “Historical Perspectives of Senoia” and “Turin Perspectives.”

A former newspaper reporter, Smith has written a book on the history of Coweta-Fayette EMC, the history of Fayetteville and Peachtree City and a book about women who have triumphed over breast cancer which has benefited breast cancer awareness through the Breast Cancer Survivor’s Network in Peachtree City. In addition to writing, Smith is a watercolorist whose most noted work, “Wait-ing for the Train,” has raised over $100,000 nationwide in support of breast cancer. The painting serves as an inspiration to breast cancer survivors and hangs in private and public collections (includ-ing hospitals and women’s imaging centers across the nation).

V E T E R A N S P L A Z A

Male Academy

HistoricCourthouse

CarnegieLibrary

CITY HALL

TRAIN DEPOT

WADSWORTH

During the 2017 Art & Architecture event May 20 view talented Newnan-Coweta Art Association artists as they create paintings of some of Newnan’s historic downtown business and office buildings from 10 a.m. to noon. Tours depart from the Court Square at 10 and 11 a.m.

Several downtown Newnan historic business and office buildings will be the focus for artists and tour stops:

• Historic Courthouse, F13• The Alamo, 19 W. Ct. Sq., E12• Ace Growlers/ Leaf & Bean, 22 W.

Ct. Sq., E13• 32 S. Ct. Sq. office building, F14

• G.R. Black building,15 Greenville Street, G17

• Reese building, 8 Greenville, G16• Reese Opera House, 34 S. Ct. Sq. G15• Dr. Jones office, 3 E. Broad St., H15• 10 to 14 E. Broad St., H14• Virginia House, 1 Jefferson St, H12• Mayfair on the Square, 7 Jefferson

Street, H11

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The present site of Newnan with its Court Square was laid out in 1828 and the first log courthouse built shortly thereafter. It was soon replaced with a brick courthouse that became the central focal point for Newnan’s tenure as a “hospital town” during the Civil War. Sheds 12’ x 100’ were built around the square to accommodate the wounded soldiers who arrived by train from battlefields to the north. The present courthouse was constructed in 1904 by

the R.D. Cole Company at a cost of $58,000. James W. Golucke was the architect. The Coweta courthouse is an excellent example of neo-Greek Revival architecture, and features a copper-cov-ered dome to match the cor-nices, pediments and railings that are made of stamped and formed copper. Rising more than 100 feet above the Court Square, the dome has clock faces on all four sides

operated by a central mechanism. The courthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 and was most recently renovated in 2010, bringing the second-floor courtroom back closely to its original appearance with auditorium-style seating and extensive wood-grain painting of wood-work to resemble oak.

Artist at Courthouse:Bette Schumann, www.bschumannartist.com — Schumann’s painting

of the 1904 Coweta County Courthouse graces our Art & Architecture brochure cover. She will be at the Courthouse dur-ing today’s tour. Following in her father’s footsteps, a professional artist, and after raising five children, Schumann is pursuing her love of painting. Begin-ning in graphic design and decoratively painting furniture, she now works almost exclusively in oil on canvas or linen. Her style is somewhere between realism and Impressionism. She has won a number of awards, has had a painting chosen to hang in the Georgia State Capitol, and is a member of the Newnan-Coweta Art Association and the Portrait Society of America.

1904 Coweta County Courthouse

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In the late 1880s a harness shop was at this location. T. G. Farmer established a general mercantile business here on W. Court Square and W. Washington and served the community in this location until 1914 when he moved his business to the northwest corner of Madison and Jefferson Streets to the building that now houses offices of The Newnan Times-Herald. The Alamo movie theater opened Dec. 9, 1916 and was beloved by the community it entertained until it closed in 1986. Newnan resident Carolyn “Pie” Burson shared that the top, front of the building was shaped like the Alamo when she was a child attending western movies on Saturday afternoons. When the Alamo Theater closed, Elizabeth Farmer Crain opened Alamo Gifts in the location. She and husband Joe Crain each had enjoyed going to the movies in downtown Newnan as children. Joe re-called riding a bus to town from Welcome every Saturday to see films at both the Alamo and the Gem Theater, which was located a few doors down on W. Court Square where Ace Growlers is today. During renovation of the building for the gift shop, a Blue Horse notebook was found in the walls and it turned out to be one of Elizabeth’s notebooks from elementary school. Today in 2017 the Alamo building serves as a live entertainment venue.

Artist at The Alamo:

Victoria-Menna Perez — Perez comes from a fine arts background as a graduate from Nazareth College, in Rochester, N.Y. She additionally studied at the School of Visual Arts, N.Y. and completed her Master of Education degree online from Walden University. She became an educator as a post bachelor student at the University of Or-lando, and began teaching art education in Florida and then continued for 14 years in Fayette County, Ga. Perez draws and illustrates homes of local scenery using pencil, markers and paint. These images are available as notecards and can be found in Encore and at Linda’s Attic in Peachtree City or her website, www.paintedpathways.com . She paints in both acrylic and oil paint and enjoys painting landscapes, animal portraits and contemporary images. Perez teaches art and also has a painting party business called Art in the City, LLC. You can learn more at www.paintedpathways.com .

The Alamo, 19 W. Court Square

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The Gem Theater operated in this location during the 1930s and screened “Gone With the Wind” when it debuted in 1939. Clothing merchant El-lis Mansour, Inc., after expanding in multiple locations downtown over the years, moved in 1960 to 22-24 West Court Square. Mansour’s department store operated there until 1988. Among later occupants were Rook’s Florist,

and later Sugar Magnolia Market and Espresso Lane Coffee Shop. Upstairs after 2010 were Georgia Mortgage Services and Farrago Art Studio. The Mansour family purchased this space from the McCalla family after their drug store closed in the early 1950s. After Ellis Mansour died in 1946, his son Michael ran the business. When Michael died in 1954 the business was left to his brothers Taft and

James and his sons Ellis and Charlie who carried on the legacy for many years. The building which housed the Gem and McCalla’s Drug Store was razed in 1960 and a new building erected which housed Mansour’s new store. Pharma-cist James R. McCalla owned and operated J. R. McCalla Drugs and Books, shown at this location 1949 and 1927. Mr. McCalla lived on Wesley Street and routinely walked to and from his store through the back alley. His son James worked as the soda jerk and ran the store for a few years following his father’s death, closing it in 1954 before becoming the first State Farm agent for Coweta County in 1955. There was a general store and undertaker at this loca-tion in 1911, a dry goods in 1900, and a general mercantile in 1889. Upstairs housed Newnan Building & Loan Association, which later became Newnan Federal Savings & Loan before it moved to the former home of Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Jefferson Jones on Jefferson Street where ValuTeachers is today.

The 32 S. Court Square building next to the old Reese Opera House, the smaller building shown in the center of the accompanying photo, was the location

of Newnan’s first movie theater, the Majestic, in the early 1900s. Joe Carrasco Gent’s furnishings was in the space in 1936. In 1972 it was the law office of Millard C. Farmer Jr. The top floor of the building connected to the Reese Opera House next door.

Ace Growlers/ Leaf & Bean, 22 W. Court Square

Office Building, 32 South Court Square

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In 2017 home to Wildwood Traders home furnishings business, the G.R. Black building at 15 Greenville Street until fall 2016 housed Grannie Fannie’s antiques. The name of the former antique store was a tribute to Carol Jackson Glover’s husband Banks Glover’s grand-mother, Virginia “Fannie” Jones Glover, known by the moniker “Grannie Fannie” to her grandchildren. Fannie Glover died in 1973 at the age of 97 and was the last surviving charter member of Central Bap-tist Church. The antique store which bore her name was the same building where her husband, Howard Clarke Glover, purchased his first business interest. Carol Glover’s store stood as a loving tribute to a mother of nine children whose legacy of Christian service continues to impact the Newnan community. One of 15 Greenville Street’s most popular tenants was the second downtown Lee-King Drug Store (Lee-King #2) which appears in documentation as early as 1936. The store advertised sick room supplies, stationery, toiletries, rubber goods, candy, a soda fountain, cigars and baby needs.

G.R. Black building, 15 Greenville Street

Artist at South Court Square:

Margo Merrifield is mostly self-taught, getting much of her material from online sources and instruc-tion. Her focus has changed over the years to a more relaxed type of composition. “Lately my inspiration comes from my beautiful and creative grandchildren,” she said. “They see things so differently. We adults need to take heed and learn from their simple enthusiasm.” She says her mediums are more flexible now: usually pencil, watercolor pencil, or pastels. Something portable and easy to start and stop. “I hope my work will be as much fun for my viewers as it is for me to create!” Look online at moreartbymargo.blogspot.com for more about Margo Merrifield.

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The building at 8 Greenville St. is where in the mid to late 1800s Dr. J. T. Reese had a drug store. This was White Drug Company in 1949; and

Walthall’s Pharmacy, owned by Lee B. Walthall, was listed as the oc-cupant in publications dated 1927 and 1936.

Dr. J. U.L. Feemster, a Newnan dentist, offered a variety of perfumed scents to appeal to the ladies at his drug store, which Dr. J. T. Reese purchased from him in

1856. Dr. Reese operated in this location from 1856 until his death in 1897 and was reportedly known for his brown elixir which cured the “summer complaint.” Beloved by the Newnan community, J. T. Reese was a supporter of the arts and built the Reese Opera House on the corner of South Court Square and Greenville Street. He practiced medicine in Newnan for 40 years. He had the city’s first telephone and was one of the organizers of the Coweta County Medical Association in 1882.

Artist at 15 Greenville Street:

Dr. J. T. Reese Building, 8 Greenville Street

Barbara Kelly has been drawing and painting since she was a youngster in her native Pennsylvania where she took lessons from impressionist Dr. Walter E. Baum. After a 32-year career in education and raising three sons, she began painting again in 1996. She has won awards exhibiting at the Georgia Capitol, Georgia State Fair, Clayton Arts Gallery, Fayette County Courthouse Show and

the Centre for Performing and Visual Arts. She has studied under several local artists and has taken workshops with Bart Lindstrom and Atlanta watercolorist Jack Shields. Moving to Newnan in 2006, she has been a regular exhibi-tor at the Newnan-Coweta Art Association’s shows and Christmas market. She paints primarily with oils and pas-tels, and feels different subject matter lends itself to one medium over another. Having traveled extensively, Kelly usually paints from photos. Although she tackles all subject matter, she enjoys painting people and animals best.

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Tina Persons grew up in Hawaii, and spent her summers in Colorado. Now she works in acrylics and paints both realism and folk art. “My Mother is a won-derful artist and so I grew up with a love of art and crafts of all kinds. As a child we spent weekends making candles, pottery and of course painting and drawing,” she said. A high school teacher Mrs. King “made me love art even more.” In college she studied painting, pottery and sculpt-ing. She teaches a class in making family history heirlooms, and is a member of a photography club and a knitting group. “My philosophy is that anyone can be an artist ... No one should measure themselves against anyone else ... only against what they want to accomplish and getting better at doing that.”

Built in 1883 by Dr. J. T. Reese as the Reese Opera House, the building was divided into six sections from 1885 to 1889. Curved brick highlighted each shop and lower windows lighted the basement. Upstairs was accessed via a weighted stairway on Greenville Street. A pulley system was used to lower the stairway to street level. Upon exiting, one would step on the stairway and it would descend to the street level. In 1884, members of Newnan’s First Baptist Church met here while their new sanctuary was built. In 1906 the building housed the Southern Telegraph & Railway Accounting Institute which began operation above Hollberg’s store in Senoia. Parents felt confident sending their children to school in Newnan as there was no alcohol allowed at that time, a selling point for the school which offered classes for men and women. In a letter to her daughter Winnie, Fannie Jones Glover wrote “the Reese Opera House was the place where all the important events in Newnan took place.” Noted events included concerts, commencement exercises, plays, exhibits and recitals, among others. The ground floor office at Greenville Street and South Court Square has been occupied by Southcrest Bank’s mortgage division since 2015. The Bank of Coweta was estab-lished August 1, 1972 and opened its first branch in this location in 1976, closing in 2014. Bank representatives went before the City Council to gain approval to brick the sidewalk in front of the bank. Scott Wilson was the first bank president and served 22 years. Among other businesses were the Bootery shoe store, Watt’s Café (Henry Watts) and Wright’s Ice Cream Parlor in 1936, and Angelo Grenga owned and operated Angelo’s Café on this sitehere. The Italian father of seven ran the café for more than 30 years. Mike Norman (father of former Newnan Mayor Joe Norman) had a cigar store known as Newnan Cigars.

Reese Opera House, 34 South Ct. Square

Artist at 8 Greenville Street:

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In 1889, Dr. Thomas Jefferson Jones about a block east of the Court Square built a building adorned with his name to house his medical practice. A devout Christian, Dr. Jones first practiced medicine as an eye, ear and throat specialist

in Hogansville, Ga., where he and his wife Jennie lived with her parents Frances and John Little-ton Johnston. When Jennie died in 1885, Dr. Jones moved with is children, Frances Virginia “Fannie” and John Littleton, to what was then Depot Street (today East Broad) to practice medicine. Upon arrival in Newnan, he joined the First Baptist Church where he and his children were faithful attenders until he became a charter member of Central Baptist in 1897. Fannie Jones was the first to be married in the sanctuary of Central Baptist when she wed Howard C. Glover. In 1891, Dr. Jones married Mary “Munie” (pro-nounced “Money”) Gibson who co-wrote the 1928 “Coweta County Chronicles” history with Lily Reynolds and was one of the six original

organizers of the Newnan Reading Circle. John Littleton Jones would later practice law in the offices upstairs at this same location. Mr. Jones served as at-torney for the Coweta County Commission and was a Georgia state representa-tive. Other upstairs offices included: Gulf Life Insurance, 1949; law offices of J. W. Powell, J. Litt Jones, J. Litt Glover 1936; Mrs. Wiggins’ Beauty Shop, listed at the location in 1936 and 1949. Litt Glover Jr. reports that his father, Litt Lover Sr., started his law practice upstairs with R. O. Jones in 1935. Beatrice Gentry served as the firm’s secretary.

Donna Massey, donnamasseyart.wix.com/donnamassey and Facebook — Cre-ative and fine arts have long been part of Massey’s life. In high school she studied

art, but in college pursued a degree in Christian Education and Music. After a career change, she was again able to refo-cus on her artwork. Acrylics are her medium of choice. She enjoys painting pastoral landscapes that depict a quiet and peaceful lifestyle — serenity for the busy, working wife and mother. She has studied with Kay Stanley of Sharpsburg and has attended life drawing sessions led by nationally-known artist Martin Pate. Her original paintings have been displayed at the Newnan Carnegie Library, PAPP Clinic in Sharpsburg, Peachtree City Public Library, and Arts Clayton Gallery in Jonesboro.

3 East Broad St., Dr. Thomas Jefferson Jones’ office

Artist at 3 East Broad:

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Artist at Virginia House, 1 Jefferson Street:

10-14 E. East Broad Street10 E. Broad St., now Fine Lines

Art & Framing, owned by Cecelia Hilton, is part of the building that includes 10-14 E. Broad. Thompson & Bros. Furniture & undertakers were here in 1880. J. U. McKoon and Sons purchased the Thompson & Bros. business in 1918 and operated the funeral home here until it moved in 1920. It was Taylor’s Barber Shop in 1936, Boscoe’s Grill in 1949, Coweta County Farm Bureau Insurance in 1967 (Fuller C. Gordon, agent), Fatty O’Riley’s restaurant 1983 and a confectionary in the 1990s. Next door at 12 E. Broad, now Candy Vogue, businesses In Stitches and a hair salon were lhoused in the 1990s; Mack’s Electric Co., 1983; and Burch & Gay Restaurant legendary possum dinners were served here — it was a restau-rant in 1911. Sumner/Meeker LLC law offices are now at 14 E. Broad. When the firm outgrew its space at 7 E. Broad in 2004, Michael E. Sumner PC moved to 14 E. Broad following extensive renovation. Sumner had a staircase built that allows the firm to use the entire upstairs area over 10-14 E. Broad St. The upstairs suite is accented by original hardwood floors, brick walls and local art. Prior to reno-vation, the offices were accessible only by the staircase at 8 ½ E. Broad, which remains a back stairwell and night drop for the law firm. Ted Meeker joined the firm in 2009. Sumner and wife Leah live in Buena Vista, the 1830 antebellum home on LaGrange Street that served as General Joe Wheeler’s headquarters at the time of the Battle of Brown’s Mill. Prior to Sumner/Meeker, the downstairs served as J. Littleton Glover’s law office in 1967, as local plumber Fred Martin’s store in the 1930s, and as a furniture store beginning in 1911. The large upstairs suite once housed Attaway Electric company and still has the unique steel door that once provided access to the adjacent building.

Karen Stetson DeFelix, Nevertoolate46@gmail.com — DeFelix began creat-ing in stained glass more than 30 years ago. Seeing a Tiffany exhibit she longed to learn how to manipulate glass so that she was not dependent on manufacturers’ stock. After many fused glass classes she is still ex-cited to see glass “melt.” She once asked a class demonstrator how he came up with creative ideas. He told her about Betty Edwards’ book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.” It changed her life. She went from drawing “bad stick figures” to drawing her own self portrait. It was only a small leap to watercolor pencils and painting. Watercolor is her favorite medium, but she has also works in acrylic and mixed mediums. She now uses both her pas-sions, making necklaces that are miniature abstract paintings under fused glass and “Picasso” inspired fused glass pendants. Relocating from Florida six years ago, she enjoys changing seasons, especially the spring blooming trees. She aptly named her painting of dogwoods - “Spring: Why I Love Georgia.”

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The office of Harmon & Gorove law firm at 1 Jefferson St. was the original lobby of Virginia House Hotel. The space housed Reese Barber Shop in 1949, Bud Gentry’s Drug Store in the 1940s, and later Joe Norman Photography Studio and then Bob Shapiro Photography Studio. Virginia House Hotel was built in 1868 with clay bricks from a Reconstruction-era kiln business started by the Long family, noted in a memoir of the 1850s-’60s by then 89-year-old Myrtie Long Candler writ-ten in Texas July 1945 and published in 1949 by “Georgia Historical Quarterly.” The earlier Coweta House Hotel was used as a Civil War hospital. It burned in 1866 and was re-placed by the current building, which originally had a balcony across the front. It was purchased in 1872 by Misses Eleanor and Rowena Yancey, of Virginia, while here visiting their sister, Mrs. J. T. Reese. They renamed the hotel after their native state. It was enlarged in 1884 to include 50 bedrooms. Note the different shaped windows and brick trim along E. Washington. When Gov. William Yates Atkinson was run-ning for office in 1893 the entire hotel was rented for two days for a campaign party ... the largest reception held in Newnan at that time. The event was a possum supper complete with a woodland scene for decoration which included a live possum, on a leash, which would climb trees in the display. The space behind the Virginia House at 7 Jefferson St. is now Mayfair on the Square children’s clothier. When this space was used as the Virginia House kitchen, so the story goes, there was a prohibition-era tunnel from the hotel which led straight to the back door through a tunnel in the wall of the current store and out to the railroad tracks for an easy getaway.

Virginia House, 1 Jefferson Street

Get InvolvedNewnan-Coweta Historical Society interprets

and preserves the historical, cultural and architectural heritage of Coweta County through its programs, exhi-bitions and collections. NCHS operates the McRitchie-Hollis Museum, at 74 Jackson St.; and the Historic Newnan Train Depot, 60 East Broad St. For hours and membership details call (770) 251-0207, write to NCHS at P.O. Box 1001, Newnan, GA 30264 or visit www.newnancowetahistoricalsociety or our Facebook pages.

Newnan-Coweta Art Association is a non-profit organiza-tion that encourages and assists artists to produce original works of every type and character, including but not limited to painting, sculpture, ceramics, wood craft, drawing and metal crafts. It helps with display of art through its own shows and elsewhere. It also fosters education and instruction in the creation and appreciation of works of art. Meetings are the third Thursday of each month at the Harriet Alexander Art Center, 31 Hospital Rd, beginning with fellowship and refreshments at 7 p.m. and a general membership meeting at 7:30 p.m. There are no meetings in July and August. For information on membership go to their website at www.newcaa.com or write to Newnan-Coweta Art Association Inc., P.O. Box 2637, Newnan, GA 30264.