Downtown Historic Heritage Walk

#2.) Historic Butt Family Home - 480 West Main Street

This circa 1914 historic home once belonged to Colonel William Butt and his wife Fanny. When the train used to carry passengers from Atlanta to Blue Ridge, the couple once hosted their friend, author of Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell, for tea here. Maybe stop for brunch or dinner sometine and imagine yourself sitting alongside the Colonel and Fanny as they entertained many a Blue Ridge guest!

*Side Stop – Downtown City Park

As you walk by the beautiful grounds of the City Park imagine the entire green space and grounds along with the town itself, were once nothing but grass, crops, and trees. The founder of the city of Blue Ridge, Colonel Michael McKinney, envisioned a bustling town with a railroad stop bringing industry and commerce to the area. As you can see, his vision saw fruition! (Check out the WWI memorial and the William Clayton Fain historic plaque on the park grounds)

#3.) Former City Hall & Jail - 301 Church Street

The city of Blue Ridge Police department was established in 1887. This building was built between 1936-37 as a WPA (Works Progress Administration) New Deal project under President Roosevelt. Originally, the building served as the Blue Ridge City Hall and Jail, but the jail cells have not been used since 1999. It is now the current Police Department building.

#4.) 4. Old Trailways Bus Station - 287 Church Street

Built around 1955, this charming white building used to be the local Trailways Bus Station. The buses would take passengers to Atlanta, where they could catch a different bus to other locations. Trailways National Bus System was established in 1936 and formed a union of 5 different lines to compete with Greyhound bus lines. With the decline of bus ridership, the building became Davenport’s Electric Motor Service, then a hair salon before it became the adorable bungalow you see today. Walk to the corner and turn right.

#5) Rialto Theatre – 801 East Main Street

The Rialto Theatre opened in 1946-47. It replaced the Royal Theatre (#7) that opened in 1939. The Rialto had 500 seats and a balcony. Both the Royal and Rialto were owned at one time by the same person, Willard Mowbray. Movies got so popular toward the end of the 1940’s that Mowbray re-opened the Royal in the 1950’s, offering 700 seats for moviegoers! A walk down the street from the Rialto will find you at the Royal Theatre (787), where the facade has been redone for retail.

#6.) Rexall – 793 East Main Street

Prior to 1945, a house stood on this spot but was removed to build the Rexall store around 1945. Good friends N.L. Prather and W.A. Walden eventually purchased and opened it as the Blue Ridge Pharmacy. The store used to sell all kinds of different merchandise in addition to pharmacy items and had a long counter with tall stools where sandwiches, ice cream, and beverages could be purchased as well. The ice cream came up from Atlanta on the train. The Rexall sign still graces the outside of the building, giving an idea of what it may have looked like to walk down the street on your way to have a sandwich or an ice cream float.

#7.) Royal Theatre – 787 East Main Street

The Royal Theatre opened in 1939, and seated only 200 people, so the need for a larger facility was needed. The Rialto had 500 seats and a balcony. Both the Royal and Rialto were owned at one time by the same person, Willard Mowbray. Movies got so popular toward the end of the 1940’s that Mowbray re-opened the Royal in the 1950’s, offering 700 seats for moviegoers! A walk down the street from the Rialto will find you at the Royal Theatre (787).

#8.) Hall Building – 771-781 East Main

Although there are 3 separate shops today, the building is structurally all one building. It is one of the oldest buildings in Blue Ridge, built around 1900, with the 2nd story being a hotel run by Colonel William Butt. It housed a few stores through the years, eventually being purchased by the Hall family in the 1940’s. When the building was divided into separate stores, Helen Hall ran a women’s clothing store during World War II. Don Hall opened a men’s clothing store in the 1960’s, selling the building to Jack and Janet Hall, who opened a store called “The Little Shop” where they sold gifts and greeting cards until they closed in the 1990’s. It is known as the Hall Building as someone in the Hall family has owned and operated shops in the building longer than anyone else.

*Side Stop – 1950’s Gas Station – 757 E Main Street

Although the current building you see was built in 1950, there has been a gas station in this location since the 1940’s, and a hot dog stand stood somewhere on the street corner. An early map of 1909 shows prior to the gas station, there was once a wood shop on this spot.

#9.) Gartrell Building – 733 East Main Street

This structure started out as a hay grain and feed store on one side, and a grocery store on the other. The Douthit Hotel was on the second story, but it opened as the Gartrell Hotel after Annie Gartrell and her husband, who used to run the Blue Ridge Hotel and sold it, moved their hotel to this location during WWII. The ground floor stores during the 1960’s hosted a 5 and 10 cent store called Lovell’s on one side, and a flower shop (also Lovell’s) on the other. The Gartrell hotel closed in 1970.

#10.) The Douthit Building – 723 East Main Street

This building was believed to have been built around 1900. It was a two-story structure at one time and Mr. Douthit offered rooms to rent on the second story. A 5 and 10 cent chain store called Lay’s operated on the ground floor on one side, and local resident Reid Mull ran a dry goods store on the other side. The building caught fire and burned sometime around 1950. A new larger building was constructed on the land (the building you see now) and both Lay’s and Mull’s dry goods reopened, closing around 1977.

#11.) The Jones Building – 709-715 East Main Street

This building is structurally one building, Originally, the building was constructed and owned by brothers Jack Jones Sr. and Hoke Jones. Look up at the white marble plaque and you can see it reads “Jones Brothers, 1946”. The bricks used to build it came from recycled bricks from the Mary P. Willingham School for Girls that operated from 1916-1931. The bricks were scraped clean and repurposed to build the building. On one side (715), Jack Jones Sr. opened the very first self-serve grocery store. The other side (709) Hoke Jones ran a pool hall, where older folks at the time thought it to be a “den of iniquity” where young men could be “led astray”. However, there was also a barber shop with two chairs inside the pool hall as well!

*Side Stop – Lily & Coco – 715-709 East Main St

All that is known about this historic little building is it was built sometime around the 1930’s. It was common practice at the time to utilize what they called ‘slag’ as a building material then, and the cinder block used to build this structure was from this material. Slag is a hard residue made from the smelting of metallic ore. The city had purchased much of the material from the Copperhill, TN plant to pave streets. It was a hair salon at one time, then an accounting business until 2003, and the new owner divided the building into two businesses. Continue walking sidewalk

*Side Stop – The Tilley Building – 695-699 East Main St

In the book by Willa Mae Haight, Facets of Fannin states the building was built by her father, William M. Allen, in 1900 for his Allen Furniture and Hardware store. In the 1930’s, Hoyt Campbell had a Ford Dealership here, with a car repair garage on the ground floor and a car showroom on the second floor! A sloping wooden bridge accessed the back of the building where new cars were driven up to the second floor. Mr. H. Tilley bought the building in 1940 and did a much-needed renovation of the old building. He and his wife, Cora, rented rooms to railroad crewman on the 2nd floor. H. Tilley Jr. eventually came to operate an appliance sales and repair store here for many years.

*Side Stop – Harley Shop – 691 East Main St

Cecil G. Hartness built this building around 1935. He was not only an attorney but ran a local newspaper for awhile until he moved, renting out the building to a man who repaired and remodeled Harley Davidson motorcycles in the 1950’s. Eventually, the building was used for a fabric store and a hardware store before becoming the bookstore it is today.

*Side Stop – Jewelry Store – 685 East Main St

In 1965, John Cochran Sr. ran Cochran’s Jewelry Store for 53 years. Prior to that, the building in the mid 1950’s was a drug store known as Bailey and Birch, which was reportedly a popular hangout for the teens of the day as they could grab a soda, a sandwich or a float behind the fountain.

*Side Stop – Terrell Building – 647 East Main St

Built sometime in the mid 1940’s, the ground floor was a restaurant, and the upper floor had rooms to rent. The Terrell Restaurant offered three meals a day, and the head cook was a man named Charlie Smith, who used to cook for Henry Ford at his Georgia home in Savannah when he was there.

*Side Stop – Western Auto Store – 631 East Main St

Prior to being the Western Auto Store, this building, built sometime in the 1940’s, was a clothing store during WWII, ran by Mr. Carl Hall. The Western Auto Store opened in the early 1970’s and sold not only auto parts, but bicycles, children’s wagons, sleds, toys, hardware, tires, and small appliances.

*Side Stop – Clothing and Shoe Repair – 497 East Main St

Built around 1955, this was once owned by a member of the Hall family, who ran a clothing store. Eventually, Mr. George Godfrey bought the building and operated a shoe store and shoe repair shop before he sold the building in 2004.

*Side Stop – Clothing and Shoe Repair – 491 East Main St

The exact year this building was built is unknown but is estimated to be sometime in the 1940’s by Roy Reece. Reece ran a grocery store here for many years and was known for his quality meats. By 1991, the building was purchased and turned into a frame store and is currently one today.

#12.) Mercantile – 490 East Main Street

Mr. T.G. Hall built this sometime between 1900-1917 for a general mercantile and clothing business. During WWII and following, Jack Walker and then Fred Stiles owned the building, and each ran a store upstairs. At one time, the back of the building downstairs was used as a bottling plant for the then very popular NuGrape soda, but it closed after operating only a year. Over the years, the store was used to sell eggs and chickens, operated as a radiator shop, and in 2000 was purchased and renovated for newer shops and stores of today. The building adjacent to the mercantile store used to be a popular café called Kessler’s.

*Side Stop – HardwareS Store - 500 East Main

This building at one time housed a hardware store. Back in the day, hardware stores sold all kinds of different items, which could have included anything from small appliances, dishes and fishing gear to basic groceries and household goods, along with general hardware items like nails, hammers, saws, nuts and bolts and more.

#13.) Cigar Building – 560 East Main Street

Building was constructed in the early 1900’s. A 1909 map of Blue Ridge records that the downstairs of the building housed a hardware store downstairs and stored “500 feet of hose” upstairs. The 1930’s saw it utilized as a boarding house and restaurant run by “Granny or Maw Blackstock.” During that time, railroad workers and Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) workers would rent cots for 50 cents a night in one of the boarding rooms upstairs (and was rumored Maw Blackstock hosted more than just a meal and moonshine!) Later uses for the building included a laundromat, a dry goods store, a beauty shop and at one time a funeral home. The murals came in around 1971 when it was a wholesale candy and tobacco store. Continue walking sidewalk

#14.) Andy’s Jewelers Building – 590 East Main Street

When this jewelry store opened, the railroad was still bringing passengers from Atlanta to Blue Ridge. Andy had a contract with the railway company to repair and service their employee watches. Through the years, the store began selling other items in addition to jewelry such as band instruments, vinyl records, and camera equipment. The tiled front entrance to the current store still bears the name of ‘Andy’s Jewelry’ when it used to welcome shoppers in for over 50 years!

*Side Stop- 590 E Main Street

The shop to the immediate right of Andy’s Jewelry store was once Thomas Insurance, a family-owned business since 1955.

#15.) Train Depot – 219 Train Depot

The original depot at the time the train officially stopped in the new town of Blue Ridge was across the street, much smaller and was painted red. After it burned down, it was rebuilt at the site where it now stands in the standard layout of L & N Railroad stops, matching most other depots of the time. Passenger service saw a decline when the new “superhighways” became more prevalent in the 1950’s. The rail line eventually ceased to carry passengers and became a freight line train until it finally stopped running altogether in the early 1970’s. The depot was the first building in Blue Ridge to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Years later, in the 1990’s, volunteers worked diligently to restore the tracks and train in order to start the train ride attraction, the Blue Ridge Scenic Rail. For years it was run and operated by an all-volunteer staff, until Patriot Rail purchased it in 2015.

#16.) Bank Building – 260 West Main Street

Built in 1926, the building hosted the Fannin County Bank from 1927 to 1976, and Peoples Bank from 1986 to 1994. The original bank saw 4’ tall wainscoting of pink marble, with a crushed marble and granite terrazzo floor, which was removed in later renovation. To the back of the structure, you can still see the original bank vault from 1927! Notice the beautiful detail on the exterior of the building engraved in stone. To the right of the taller building is a smaller building once used for an insurance business and bank staff as well. The beautiful balustrade atop the smaller building is original.

#17.) Old Post Office – 165 Depot Street

The very first Post Office in the 1890’s was once across the street where the parking garage is now. The current location opened as the Post office around 1961 and operated until it moved to its present location on the Orvin Lance Connector in 2009.

#18.) White Victorian Home – 477 West First Street

This beautiful Victorian home was built in 1890 by Sylvester Long, who was a railroad construction gang boss. The banisters and ornamental trimmings were all made by hand. When the railroad shops closed in 1906, the home was used as a temporary hotel. In 1909, James Kincaid, the first ‘Ordinary’ of Fannin County (old term meaning he oversaw Probate Court, wills, and estates) bought the house for $2,500. He chose the home as it was one of the few homes in Blue Ridge that had indoor plumbing at the time and hosted 14 rooms, 8 fireplaces, 12’ ceilings and claw tubs. It was converted into a Bed & Breakfast in 1996.

#19.) Baugh House – 477 West First Street

Built in 1890 by James Walden Baugh, it is the oldest brick home in Blue Ridge. Mr. Baugh was a brick mason who owned the Baugh brickyards in Mineral Bluff, where the bricks for this building were made. Baugh bricks were used in constructing numerous buildings in the county. The house hosts two main rooms on each floor, with an attached kitchen on the downstairs level. An “L” shaped porch connects the kitchen to the parlor. Eventually, the building became home to the Baugh House Museum, operated by the Fannin County Heritage Foundation and is open to the public.

#20.) L & N Railroad Building – 274 West Main Street

This historic structure was built in 1895, nine years after the trains first began, and it was known as the L & N (Louisville and Nashville) Building and originally stood 3 stories tall, with the second and third floors occupied by railroad offices. In 1901, the first floor housed the North Georgia National Bank. The building itself was purchased in 1912 by William Allen, and the bank closed in 1916. The building has served as space for other banks, a pharmacy, a physician’s office, an attorney’s office, meeting spaces, and a telephone and electric company through the years. In the 1940’s, roof leakage caused so much damage to the 3rd floor it was removed, making it the two-story building it is now. In 2006, the structure saw some much-needed renovation, with businesses and offices occupying it today.