Rome celebrates Historic Preservation Month

♦ The theme is ‘Research Your Hometown.’

Rome is celebrating Historic Preservation Month through a partnership with the Rome Area Center History Center, the Rome Historic Preservation Commission, the Atlanta Preservation Center and the M.H. Mitchell Foundation.

The partnership has developed a Research Your Hometown theme for the month.

“I think the two coolest things we have in the window are the cornerstone from the old Atlanta Carnegie Library building and a medallion (from the old First Baptist Church of Atlanta) with fingerprints from the children who made it back before child labor laws were enacted,” said Brittany Griffin, a planner in the Rome Planning Department.

The exhibit also includes some of the original flooring from the old Sears building in Atlanta, an original balustrade from the old Second Avenue Bridge, a shutter from the Grant Mansion in Atlanta, flooring from the old Hillyer House and an old Victorian home on Fourth Avenue.

“Rome has always been a model for others in the state and with the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966, Rome was one of the first Georgia cities to endorse this by passing its own historic preservation ordinance in 1978,” said Atlanta Preservation Director David Mitchell.

“This exhibits the courage and leadership of the City Commission of that time and how we can be stewards of that work,” he said.

Selena Tilly, director of the history center, has a number of events planned throughout the month.

The center will be doing weekly video tidbits on the various social media channels. They’ll feature the City Creamery building in the 200 block of Broad Street; the old Gordon Theater, which was in the Partridge Restaurant building; the old Chamber of Commerce in the 400 block; the Jamwich/pam Studios building in the 500 block; and the City Auditorium in the 600 block.

Rome Planning Department staffer Brice Wood places a cornerstone from the old Atlanta Carnegie Library in the window display at the Rome Area History Center.

Doug Walker Rome Planner Brittany Griffin looks at the children’s fingerprints in an old clay medallion that was once a part of the old First Baptist Church of Atlanta building. It’s in the display window at the Rome Area History Center during the May observance of National Historic Preservation Month.

Rome Area History Center Director Selena Tilly (from left), shows off a 1956 aerial map of downtown Rome to planners Brittany Griffin and Brice Wood as part of a special Historic Preservation Month exhibit.