Years ago, when Athens faced a roiling political controversy involving building a civic center on the site of an old warehouse district, the band offered to underwrite a study of the area’s history conducted by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. It helped to preserve the old firehall on the site, which now serves as a central meeting area for the Classic Center; and as recently as the recent Walmart threat to downtown, the 1990 study was referenced as a key to understanding and interpreting the historic context of the oldest part of downtown Athens GA. As the local Athens Clarke Heritage Foundation gears up for its annual holiday Gala this coming weekend, we went back and read all about it in the mists of time file…
