GwinnettForum | Number 25.28| April 8, 2025
COMING BY 2026: Here are four views of a new Norcross Public Safety Building to house the Police Department, Municipal Court and public meeting space. This new facility will be located on land that was formerly the Norcross Library at the corner of Buford Highway and Stevens Road, and on adjacent property the city has acquired. CROFT and Associates of Kennesaw is the architect/engineer; Turner and Townsend Heery/AEI is the project manager; and Reeves Young of Sugar Hill is the contractor for the building. Mayor Craig Newton says the facility will cost $26.3 million, including the property acquisition, razing the old library and the construction. Groundbreaking is scheduled for sometime in April, 2025. The police should occupy the new offices in August or September 2026.
TODAY’S FOCUS: Looking at Georgia in 1925, then again in 2025
EEB PERSPECTIVE: Colorful Bardi trucks can be seen all over Atlanta
SPOTLIGHT: Peachtree Campus
ANOTHER VIEW: Volunteers needed for disability-friendly family camp
FEEDBACK: Remembers parents worrying about Social Security
UPCOMING: April is a great time for flying a kite
NOTABLE: Braselton hospital has staff of nearly 2,000
RECOMMENDED: The Nude by C. Michelle Lindley
GEORGIA TIDBIT: Hattie Saussy of Savannah had extensive art career
MYSTERY PHOTO: Massive tower is today’s special mystery photo
CALENDAR: Suwanee Art Fest on tap this weekend
Looking at Georgia in 1925, then again in 2025
(Editor’s note: Billy Chism grew up around newspapers; his father was publisher of the Pelham News. He ended his career as editor and publisher of the White County News in Cleveland for nine years. He retired in September 2016 and now lives in Toccoa.—eeb)
By Billy Chism
TOCCOA, Ga. | A number of years ago, while browsing in a used bookstore on St. Simons Island, I found a thick volume titled: “American Newspaper Annual and Directory – 1926.” I carefully lifted the heavy book from the shelf, noting it was in fair condition.
Chism
After bartering with the owner, we agreed on $25. The original selling price: $15, was considered a lot of money back then.
For me, this volume, three inches thick, became a prized possession. It offered a snapshot of our country in 1925, including a list of all newspapers published in the U.S. in 1925. Indeed, these annual directories served the newspaper world with facts and figures now available on the Internet. (The book was published annually by N.W. Ayer and Son of Philadelphia, Penn., and was known in the trade as “The Ayer Directory.” It was last published in 1986. Ayer was the nation’s first advertising agency.”)
My 1926 volume focused on the year 1925, giving a detailed look at (then) all 48 states. Color maps of each state showed every county, every little town. Population charts listed each state’s population county by county.
1926 N.W. Ayer Directory is three inches thick
In the directory’s introduction, the editors extoll the book’s many features. Among them: “A description of every place in the United States and Canada in which a newspaper is published, including railroad, telegraph express and banking facilities; also state, territory, or province, giving the location of surface and soil, chief products and manufacturing, forming a valuable guide to the judicious placing of any advertising.”
In 1925, radio was in its infancy. Radio broadcasting didn’t become a nationwide phenomenon until the 1930s. Many Georgians didn’t own a television set until the mid-50s or later.
Newspapers were king in 1925 and beyond. Thankfully, those left today are sometimes struggling, but still doing their job.
How did Georgia look 100 years ago? The book tells us.
The population was 2.9 million. Urban residents numbered some 700,000, rural 2.2 million. There were 310,732 farms, averaging 82 acres. Chief crops were peanuts, tobacco and corn. The chief fruits were peaches and apples.
In the mule census, Georgia came in second with 375,000 mules, surpassed only by Texas. This is in the book. As I write on my MacBook Pro laptop today, it’s hard to remember the last time I saw a mule.
Obviously, Georgia has changed tremendously in 100 years. The world has changed.
Is our world a better place today than in 1925? Hard to say, since I wasn’t born until 1951.
World War I ended in 1918, followed by a world-wide flu epidemic that killed millions. Finally, good times arrived in the Roaring Twenties, but were short-lived.
The Great Depression, sparked by the stock market crash of 1929, brought our nation to its knees. But we eventually prevailed.
My hope is we prevail today, despite the dismantling of many of our great national institutions, which have kept us safe, secure and healthy.
Where will the next 100 years take us?
I have no idea, but embrace the words of Winston Churchill, who quipped: “For myself I am an optimist—it does not seem to be much use being anything else.”
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Colorful Bardi trucks can be seen all over Atlanta
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
APRIL 8, 2025 | People throughout Greater Atlanta have seen the colorful Bardi service trucks scooting around, as the Norcross-based company dispatches assistance to residential customers for plumbing, HVAC and electrical problems. There’re plenty of them, now totaling 90 vehicles, as the company has experienced major growth from its beginning in 1989.
Today the company is run by Adam Bardi, who purchased the firm in 2018, when he had 22 employees and 10 trucks. Seven years later, he has grown to 130 member-employees.
Adam Bardi
Inc. Magazine named Bardi among the 5,000 fastest growing companies in the nation in 2022 and 2023.
The company was founded by Italian immigrant Alexander Bardi, who came to Marietta from Trieste, Italy, when he was seven years old. He later graduated from Georgia Tech with a mechanical engineering degree, and took a job in the oil industry in Houston, where his son Adam was born. But during an oil crisis of the early 1980s, he lost his job. Contacting the Georgia Tech placement office, the senior Bardi joined Cherokee Heating and Air of Atlanta, where he remained for seven years before starting his own company in 1989. The firm has always been based in Gwinnett.
Trainees work on water heaters in classroom
Meanwhile, Adam Bardi, 42, graduated from Valdosta State University, and began a painting business, which proved successful for six years.“I didn’t want to be in dad’s shadow,” he says.
Meanwhile, he married a former fellow high school student, Heather. (They both graduated from high school in Henry County, though they did not date then.) He and his wife have two daughters, Reagan and Rylie, ages 6 and 8, and live in Peachtree Corners.
By 2010, Adam felt mature enough to join his father in the business, learning the various aspects, and taking courses in HVAC at Gwinnett Tech at night. He became familiar with all aspects of the company, including night service calls. He eventually became general manager of the residential side of the business. When his father decided to retire, Adam found financing and bought the business from his father.
Different HVAC systems become familiar in class
How has the company grown so quickly? Adam says: “I’m a driven person, and want to be the best. I gravitate toward sales and marketing and we have strong operational people. I also belong to a national CEO group and share data and bounce ideas off each other.”
Another reason: Bardi recognized the bottleneck of not having many qualified technicians. “Many are getting old and retiring, so we need to train people.”
Bardi hired a training director, who runs a 12 week academy to teach 15 employees at a time in all aspects of the business. A special classroom is outfitted with the mechanical units that are in homes, such as HVAC, plumbing, heat pumps, and toilets.
Heat pumps in training class
“These students take these units apart to learn how they operate. They are our employees who are paid by us to study in this academy, and paid more when they graduate. Once completing the training, they become eligible to make service calls and operate their own truck. Some can make over six figures. And our goal is to retain as many employees as we can as we grow our business.”
Happily, Adam says there is a waiting list of those who want this training. Bardi lets his employees take their trucks home, which allows them to be easily dispatched quickly the next day all over the Atlanta area.
Always with a goal, Adam Bardi hopes to double the size of his business within five years. So look for even more of those brightly-painted Bardi trucks in your neighborhood.
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Peachtree Campus
The public spiritedness of our sponsors allows us to bring GwinnettForum.com to you at no cost to readers. Today we welcome a new underwriting sponsor. Peachtree Campus is North Atlanta’s campus for education, production, and events. Located in historic Norcross, with abundant parking and easy access to Peachtree Boulevard, Peachtree Campus should be on the short list when looking for a workspace with creative vision. It’s the home of Brenau University’s North Atlanta Campus and to Boswell Edward Academy, a Georgia Pre-K School and Daycare. The Veranda on Reps Miller provides flexible space for small events and larger community events. It hosts the annual Neighborhood Christmas Train Experience. Now available is 3159 Campus Drive, which has 27 classrooms and a large multi-purpose space, which can be the perfect location for a growing school, event facility, film/video production studio, or faith community. Learn leasing opportunities by contacting Jonathan Galucki, email jg@optimaproperties.net or texting 678-612-3385.
- For a list of other sponsors of this forum, click here.
Volunteers needed for disability-friendly family camp
By Dawn Megli
BUFORD, Ga. | Many families in Georgia live with disability. The tasks of daily caregiving can sometimes be isolating and overwhelming. And while every family deserves a break from their routine sometimes, taking a vacation can feel impossible for families with special needs.
Megli
But there’s reason for hope.
Joni and Friends, a disability ministry in Buford, is accepting applications for both participants and volunteers for its Family Retreat at Camp Twin Lakes in Rutledge in May.
Family Retreat is a weeklong event held in a fully accessible camp-like environment in Rutledge where families with disabilities are cared for, rejuvenated, and spiritually encouraged.
During this time of respite and refreshment, families build lasting memories and find renewed hope as they take part in Bible study and accessible activities, all while connecting with other families who face similar challenges. Participants enjoy inclusive worship, evenings under the stars, time in God’s Word, and encouraging messages from our speakers.
Organizer, Tifanie Slaymaker says: “It’s a little slice of heaven for families living with disability. Family Retreat makes the simple joys of a family vacation possible for special needs families. You wouldn’t believe how many accessible activities we have to offer.”
From left are Ashlyn Tucker, McKenna Genn, and Savannah Crafton. Provided.
Camp Twin Lakes in Rutledge has been serving families with special needs since 1993. It provides industry-leading expertise in therapeutic camp programming, medically supportive facilities, adaptive equipment, tailored nutrition services, and qualified staff.
Disability-friendly amenities and activities include an accessible swimming pool, adaptive horseback riding, archery, arts and crafts, bicycling, a climbing wall, paddle boats and zipline.
Each day there will be programs including age-appropriate worship and teaching, crafts, and recreation. Parents and caregivers will also enjoy small group discussions, relaxing activities, and practical seminars that address family life and issues related to living with disability.
During free time, there will be a variety of fun, accessible activities such as swimming, arts and crafts, sports and games, and more! Evening activities are designed for the whole family to participate together and may include entertainment, outdoor BBQ, carnival, bonfire and s’mores, or a talent show.
Trained volunteers will serve families throughout the event. Each volunteer has undergone a thorough screening and background check, and has completed training.
Your family’s assigned volunteer, or buddy, will attend all activities with each child with a disability, allowing the whole family to participate in programming and enjoy times of respite. Additional support volunteers will provide assistance throughout age-group programming, recreation activities, arts and crafts and more. In addition, you can count on plenty of friends to support your family during the event.
This is a volunteer opportunity, especially for college students and young adults, to serve as volunteers. All Christian volunteers, especially church groups, are welcome to apply! Isolation is a huge problem for families with disability, so this is a meaningful opportunity to serve.
Scholarships are available for families who need financial assistance.
- For more information or to register as a family or volunteer, visit https://joniandfriends.org/event/family-retreat-georgia-2025/.
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Remembers parents worrying about Social Security
Editor, the Forum
About Social Security: Elaine Still made some great points. My father worked for the City of Atlanta Police Department and Atlanta Board of Education. He was the second School Detective hired in the Atlanta office. Atlanta City government did not pay into Social Security. After retiring, Daddy worked a security job to complete his 40 quarters for Social Security benefits. Both my parents knew the value of Social Security and its benefits.
I do not have the details but I remember vividly my parents worrying about Social Security because the funds were being rerouted by Congress into other avenues of spending. It was depleting the well of security for our country’s aging population.
I wonder how many programs the federal government supports now by the Social Security monies collected. I wish Congress would have kept their many fingers out of the Social Security pie. It would be a stronger dessert for us old folks.
– Marlene Buchanan, Snellville
Thinking outside the box about Social Security
Editor, the Forum
Here’s a novel idea for Social Security woes. Maybe, tax the wage earner one percent of what they make, with the exception of the person who makes less than $40,000 a year not having to pay this.
Tax both rich and middle class the one percent and do away with FICA. Put all that money collected into two separate accounts, equally. Label one account for the Taxpayers’ Social Security and the other for domestic/military account. The taxpayers will get a percentage like we do now for our Social Security payments and the other is for the government to spend.
Label the Social Security account with the words: “Keep Your Dirty Fingers Off My Retirement Fund” and “Go Ahead and Waste This Money.” Just a suggestion by way of thinking outside the box.
– Sara Rawlins, Lawrenceville
Likes plan proposed by Still for Social Security
Editor, the Forum:
About Social Security: what Elaine Still proposes is a sensible plan. (GwinnettForum April 1, 2025, Both political parties should protect Social Security).
We need to contact our Representatives and Senators and encourage their support.
— John Titus, Peachtree Corners
Thanks writer for courage to speak his mind
Editor, the Forum:
Let me applaud George Wilson for his personal courage in his “Israel has become a threat to humanity” letter published in the April 4 issue of GwinnettForum.
In the South we eat peas on New Year’s Day to remind us of the cost of ethnic supremacism, and that it does eventually catch up with us.
We have paid dearly defending the notion that all men are created equal, and have each recited thousands of times a pledge that ends with “liberty and justice for all.”
How now can we support a country where rights are based on ethnicity – a practice we have struggled to distance ourselves from for over 200 years, before we fall back into that same moral quagmire? How long before one race is given more protection; more advantage, more rights than others here? If so, then what have we fought for? Why eat the peas?
The horrors in Gaza and West Bank started well before October 7, 2023. But what has followed has been right out of Schindler’s list. If we are not going to stop it, we should at least distance ourselves from it financially, militarily, and politically. At some point, “never again” must mean “never again, to anyone.”
– Joe Briggs, Senoia
Rejects idea that Israel is a threat to humanity
Editor, the Forum:
We’ve had a deep appreciation for you and your philosophy around the GwinnettForum. You have given voice to a variety of perspectives. So, thank you.
Recently, George Wilson offered that Israel was a threat to humanity. I personally reject that idea completely. And will further offer that the Jews, for whom Israel is the historic homeland, are the ones who time and again, throughout the millennia, have been threatened with extinction. And unlike so many people groups, they have not only managed to survive, but to thrive and pursue life with singleness of purpose.
And this in the face of many, who like George (apparently), would prefer their complete extinction. They have, through the young men and women who serve in the IDF, to paraphrase Chesterton “sought life in a furious indifference to it; desiring life like water yet willing to drink death like wine.” And this in the face of extremists locally and around the world who wish them gone.
– Randy Brunson, Suwanee
Raises question if time to invoke the 25th Amendment
Editor, the Forum:
As a former psychologist, I am concerned that our president is suffering from a mental disorder.
The symptoms of a narcissistic disorder are as follows: a high sense of self importance; a need for constant admiration; feel they deserve special treatment; a need to inflate achievements and talents; a need to look down at others; a belief they are superior to others; an expectation of special favors; a desire to take advantage of others; an inability of recognize the needs of others; an arrogant way and a need to brag; a tendency to react with anger; and easily feels slighted.
I ask you now to assess our president as to his mental stability. If you agree with me then we need to demand invoking the 25th amendment that allows the president to be replaced.
– Alan Schneiberg, Sugar Hill
Send us your thoughts: We encourage you to send us your letters and thoughts on issues raised in GwinnettForum. Please limit comments to 300 words, and include your hometown. The views of letters are the opinion of the contributor. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Send feedback and letters to: ebrack2@gmail.com.
April is a great time for flying a kite
As lovers of the Great Outdoors, the Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful (GC&B) team loves any opportunity to combine some of our favorite pastimes with Gwinnett County’s award-winning parks. April is the perfect opportunity to do a little eco-friendly crafting, find the ideal multi-use field or green space at a local park, and take your DIY kite out for its inaugural flight. But first…a little kite history
Via Unsplash.
The first kites were believed to have been created in China, although there is evidence that kites also made their first appearances in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the South Pacific. While some were used for recreational purposes, they were also crafted from natural materials like leaves and reeds to be used as fishing instruments.
The first recorded account was in China around 200 BC. Legend holds that General Han Hsin of the Han Dynasty flew a kite over the walls of a city he was attacking to measure how far his army would have to tunnel to reach past the defenses. By the 13th century, Chinese traders had spread the kite craze to Korea, India, and the Middle East. In 1295, Marco Polo described kites in his writings about his travels, and by the 14th and 15th centuries, kite flying hit the skies over Europe.
While it proved to be a common curiosity among children from the start, kite flying also had several scientific applications. In 1749, Alexander Wilson and Thomas Melville of the University of Glasgow in Scotland made the first recorded weather experiments using kites. Marking perhaps one of the most famous historic kite-flying events, Benjamin Franklin conducted electrical experiments using a kite in a lightning storm in 1752. By the late 1800s, kites were used regularly for meteorological observation. Avid kite flyers – Orville and Wilbur Wright – gleaned inspiration from flying box kites for the world’s first successful airplane.
While anyone can go out and buy a kite, it adds another layer of engagement to make one of your own. Needless to say, GC&B recommends repurposing materials to create your kite.
- Gather the materials you’ll need to make your kite. Newspaper or paper grocery bags make terrific foundations for your kite’s body, but some designs involve old t-shirts or plastic bags, as well.
- You can search the woods near your house for sticks that will serve as the “spine” and the “spar” of your kite – which can be lashed together in the shape of a “t” using thin garden twine or butcher cord to form the frame.
- Cover the frame with your newspaper, grocery bags, or fabric and fix it in place using scotch or masking tape.
- Attach a string (again using thin garden twine or butcher cord) to the spine long enough for your kite to take to the air and fly. Decorate your kite using markers or crayons.
Head to your favorite Gwinnett County Park to enjoy flying your own kite.
County awards contracts for bridges and roads
Gwinnett Commissioners awarded several transportation contracts recently.
The board awarded a $4.77 million contract to E.R. Snell Contractor, Inc. of Snellville to construct new fencing on Beaver Ruin Road and Center Way bridges over Interstate 85. The project also includes the installation of crosswalks at the intersection of Center Way and Brook Hollow Parkway. The safety-focused project is funded by the 2017 SPLOST program and was the only bid received.
The county also approved the resurfacing of over 200 miles of county roads.To maintain and extend the life of residential roadways, the Board awarded resurfacing contracts totaling $12.7 million to The Scruggs Company, dba Sunbelt Asphalt Surfaces, Inc. of Auburn and Triple R Paving and Construction, LLC of Fayetteville. The contracts will allow Gwinnett to resurface over 43 centerline miles of residential streets this cycle, with more than 200 miles scheduled for rehabilitation this year. The county is divided into three sections: north, central east, and west. Sunbelt Asphalt will manage the north section, while Triple R will cover the central east and west.
Braselton hospital has staff of nearly 2,000
Anyone who drives the stretch of Friendship Road between Interstate 985 and Georgia Highway 211 can see the area is one of the fastest growing in the state as they cruise past pristine active retirement communities, new shopping centers, thriving restaurants and a rapidly expanding Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) Braselton campus.
The hospital celebrated its 10-year anniversary on April 1 – surrounded by a thriving economic center that was just a dream more than two decades ago, when Northeast Georgia Health System’s (NGHS) volunteer board members and leadership team saw the potential for the future as they gazed across rolling pastures that spanned four counties.
Anthony Williamson, who led the design and construction, and then served as president of NGMC Braselton from its opening day in 2015 through 2024 remembers: “Our plan for Braselton was to do exactly what our mission urges us to do – improve the health of our community in all we do. We knew there was a tremendous need to make healthcare services more accessible in the Braselton area. It has been our honor to care for our growing community for the past 10 years, and the support we have received from the community has allowed us to become a new healthcare destination and serve as the driving force for surrounding infrastructure and growth.”
The vision quickly became reality when the hospital opened its doors. The number of people who came there for care far surpassed initial projections. In the decade that’s followed, NGMC Braselton has seen more than 10,000 baby deliveries, almost 500,000 emergency department visits and cared for more than 81,000 hospital in-room patients. Staff have performed more than 750,000 lab tests and delivered over one million meals to patients’ rooms – while serving another 3.5 million meals to visitors in the café.
Kevin Matson, who succeeded Williamson and now serves as NGHS vice president of Regional Hospitals in the system’s southern market with oversight of NGMC Braselton and NGMC Barrow, says: “We joke that we’ve had a crane at the hospital every day since it opened, and that’s not far from the truth. We’re in the midst of an expansion project now that’s adding two more floors to the main tower, which will be complete this summer, and will triple the size of the emergency room in 2026.”
NGMC Braselton opened with 100 beds in 2015, and the count is already up to 188 beds with more on the way. The hospital campus also includes three medical office buildings which are home to the Braselton Cancer Center, Braselton Surgery Center, Imaging Center of NGMC, several Northeast Georgia Physicians Group (NGPG) practices spanning multiple specialties, other physician practices and an Urgent Care center.
During the past decade, NGHS has recruited more than 150 physicians to NGPG and Georgia Heart Institute practices in the Braselton area. NGHS has also invested more than $1 billion in hospital expansions and medical office buildings in communities near the hospital including Hoschton, Dacula, Hamilton Mill, Auburn, Jefferson and Buford. And that number doesn’t include the cost of care when patients don’t have the ability to pay or the expense of community outreach such as free screenings and health education seminars.
When the hospital was nearing completion ten years ago, NGHS estimated that NGMC Braselton would initially create more than 500 new jobs. But today, there are nearly 2,000 staff members working in the Braselton market.
The Nude, by C. Michelle Lindley
From Karen J. Harris, Stone Mountain: Art Historian Elizabeth Clarke arrives in Greece on a small island with the goal of purchasing a female sculpture. It begins as an adventure but becomes complicated when issues from her past begin to make themselves known. A further problem becomes her slow enmeshment with a local couple whose seductive ways pull her into Grecian culture in surprising and disturbing ways. Elizabeth is one of two art historians in the U.S. who are competing for the top role in the company seeking to acquire the sculpture. The culture is awakening in her an understanding about who really owns artistic items, the finders, or the land from which they belong. The story is resolved in a surprising and somewhat murky way. The author is gifted with creating an atmosphere that is both evocative and mysterious. The characters, however, are only minimally developed so it is difficult to invest in their actualization.
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Saussy of Savannah had extensive art career
For much of the 20th century, Hattie Saussy was closely associated with the art community of Savannah, whose fledgling art organizations she supported and led. She also studied and traveled extensively outside the region as a young adult, seeking to perfect her impressionistic style of painting. Throughout her life, Saussy faced formidable obstacles—including blindness in one eye from a childhood accident, the outbreak of World War I (1917-18) while residing in Europe, and a broken hip in her senior years—but none seriously hindered her career or dampened her ambitions.
Born in Savannah on March 17, 1890, to Rachel Louise Shivers and Joachim Radcliffe Saussy III, Hattie Saussy was the only child of her parents to live to an advanced age. She attended public school in Savannah and was in fifth grade when art instruction was introduced into the curriculum by painter Lila Cabaniss. These art classes were supplemented with private lessons from Mrs. G. A. Wilkins and her daughter, Emma Cheves Wilkins. Additionally, Saussy used plaster casts taken from antique sculpture and impressionist paintings in the collection of the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences as source material to copy and perfect her technique.
Saussy left Savannah after high school to attend Mary Baldwin Seminary in Staunton, Va.
During the next four years (1908-12), Saussy lived with her widowed mother in New York City. She studied at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art, the National Academy of Design, and the Art Students League. Her teachers during this period included Rae Sloan Bredin, George Bridgman, Frank Vincent DuMond, Eliot O’Hara, and Eugene Speicher.
Saussy and her mother left for Europe in 1913 and remained there until World War I began the following year. During her time there, she studied in Paris, France, with E. A. Taylor and traveled the continent, creating watercolor paintings and a few oils to document her travels. Upon her return to the United States, Saussy divided her time between Savannah and New York, and in 1915 she worked for the government in Washington, D.C., until the end of the war.
Saussy spent the remainder of her life in Savannah, except for one year (1920-21), when she taught at Chatham Hall Episcopal Institute (later Chatham Hall in several leadership capacities. She was a founding member of the Association of Georgia Artists, serving as its president in 1933-34, and a member of the Southern States Art League, and her work was regularly exhibited with these organizations.
The artist painted portraits of family and friends but is better known for her sun-dappled landscapes, for which she traveled throughout the region to paint outdoors. During one such excursion in 1972 Saussy broke her hip, resulting in home confinement for the rest of her life. She died on January 13, 1978.
Saussy’s work is found in Georgia in the collections of the Columbus Museum in Columbus, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, and the Telfair Museum of Art. Her work is also housed in South Carolina at the Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia and the Spartanburg Art Museum and at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, La.
- To view the Georgia Encyclopedia article online, go to https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org
Massive tower is today’s special mystery photo
Here’s a massive memorial rising high about mere mortals. Ever seen it before? It might not be where you first think it might be. Figure out an answer and send your thoughts to ebrack2@gmail.com, to include your hometown.
Susan McBrayer, Sugar Hill recognized a local mystery: “This is the Spruill Gallery on Ashford Dunwoody Road in Atlanta. The Spruill’s original house was built in 1867 and was the center of a working farm. When Stephen T. Spruill married Mollie Lee Carter in 1889, the house was presented to them as a wedding gift from Stephen’s parents, Thomas F. and Naomi “Omie” Martin Spruill.
“In 1905, Stephen tore down the original log house and rebuilt it as the house it is known as today. The Spruill’s house and five surrounding acres were donated to the Spruill Center for the Arts to serve as a place to foster creative expression through the arts. It is now known as the Spruill Gallery.” The photo came from Rick Krause of Lilburn.
Other keen-eyed readers sent in in the right answer included Jay Altman, Columbia, S.C.; Sara Rawlins, Lawrenceville; Allan Peel, San Antonio, Texas; George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; and Mike Tennant, Duluth.
SHARE A MYSTERY PHOTO: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Click here to send an email and please mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
Suwanee Art Fest on tap this weekend
The PDC Club in Norcross will hear a presentation on charter schools at its meeting on April 9 at 8:15 a.m. 45 South Café on South Peachtree Street in Norcross. Speaking will be Donovan Head and Bobby Holiday. All are invited.
Unity through Understanding: Cultural Dialogue and Mosque Tour will be held on April 9 at 2 p.m. at the Baitul Ata Mosque, 1800 Willow Trail Parkway in Norcross. Take a tour of a local mosque followed by an educational session providing insight into Islam.
Suwanee Art Fest will be held at Town Center Park on Saturday and Sunday, April 12-13. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and from noon until 5 p.m. on Sunday. More than 120 artists will showcase their work, plus there will be entertainment by musicians, dancers and local performers. You can create your own lantern at a lantern workshop.
“Nothing but people” is the title of a new exhibit at Norcross Gallery and Studios now open. It displays in many media and styles our natural fascination with humans in their endless variety. The show continues through April 26 with a free and open reception on Sunday April 13 from 4 to 6 p.m. Among the new works is “Ramsey” by Lynda Ellis.
Calling all gardeners, garden enthusiasts, and everyone in between! Garden Fest is returning for its sixth year at the Grayson Branch of Gwinnett County Public Library on two days, Tuesday, April 15, and Thursday, April 17. Both days hours will be from noon to 6 p.m.
Writing Your Memoirs is the subject of a three-session workshop on April 16, 23 and 30 at the Collins Hill Branch of Gwinnett County Public Library. Learn how your experiences and life lessons can entertain and inspire others in this writing workshop.
Mindful Spaces will be presented at the Snellville Branch of Gwinnett County Public Library on April 17 at 6 p.m. Learn about the mental health benefits of decluttering and organizing. Utilize tips and tricks to overcome the feeling of being overwhelmed.
Two Easter Egg Hunts will take place in Norcross on April 19 at Rosie Brundage Park. The first hunt will be at 10 a.m. packed with hidden treasures and the Easter Bunny. Then at 1 p.m. there is a hunt designed for kids with special needs, featuring beeping eggs and special scoops for those in wheelchairs. The hunts are sponsored by the City of Norcross.
Recycling day in Peachtree Corners will be from 9 a.m. Saturday, April 19, until noon, at City Hall. Residents may dispose of paper materials and electronic waste free of charge.
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