Special Basket Display at Vann House Historic Site

Basket Exhibit at Chief Vann House, Spring Place, near Chatsworth, Georgia:

In commemoration of National Historic Preservation Month, the Friends of the Vann House and the Vann House Historic Site are sponsoring a special display of baskets at the Spring Place site throughout the month of May.

Baskets were an important part of Cherokee culture, so the site has several "historic" baskets preserved and permanently displayed in its museum.  Among them are a large "double weave" basket possibly dating from the 1790's, a slave-made basket from the early 1800's, and a rivercane basket found in the loft of an abandoned Cherokee cabin in Murray County after the Trail of Tears in 1838.

A variety of modern baskets made in the traditional manner by Cherokee weavers as well as by the Vann House weaver Margie Huffstetler can be seen in the museum, the Vann House itself, and in the log cabins.

The Vann House is located at the intersection of GA Highways 225 and 52 A, three miles west of Chatsworth and is open Thursday-Sunday 9-5.  For more information and admission fees, call the site at 706-695-2598 or check Facebook and the GeorgiaStateParks.org website.

Whitfield-Murray Historical Society Preservation Awards

(Chatsworth, Georgia): Whitfield-Murray Historical Society will hold its annual Historic Preservation Awards and Scholarships ceremony on Sunday, May 17th at Murray County Senior Center in Chatsworth, Georgia. Awards will be presented to area individuals who have made significant contributions to the preservation of history in Whitfield or Murray County. Scholarships will be awarded to several area students from Whitfield and Murray County High Schools. Those who won scholarships completed projects or essays on local-area history.

Event:
Whitfield-Murray Historical Society Annual Preservation Awards
Date & Time: Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 2:30 p. m.
Location: Murray County Senior Center, Chatsworth, Georgia

Old Rock Building Prints

Chatsworth, Georgia: Old Rock Building ~

The prints of the Old Rock Building are back. They look good. They are trimmed and have no border, so my framing suggestion would be a gallery mount, leaving a white or off-white border between the print and the mat. Murray County Board of Education will sell the prints to raise funds for the renovation of the Old Rock Building, which is currently under way. The original art was an acrylic painting donated by D.K. Pritchett. You can see the art prints at Pat's Antiques in Chatsworth (posted date, current 06-30-07).

For more information on the Old Rock Building and why it is so special to Chatsworth, see the articles at southernmuse.com/rockbldg.html

FYI: The building is now called the V.C. Pickering Administrative Offices, but is affectionately known as the old rock building. As of 2004, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Murray County High School Historic District (District 04000628) 1004 Green St., Chatsworth, Georgia. After renovation, the building will be the central offices for Murray County Schools.

Historic Preservation in Dalton, Georgia

Dalton, Georgia: Quick update from the archives... Crown Gardens and Archives was closed for about two hours today to allow Whitfield-Murray Historical Society to set up a table at a local Historic Preservation event that took place at Dalton Green (park). The importance of historic preservation was discussed. Dalton has a large area of Civil War battlements that still exist, including Rocky Face Ridge, a large tract of which has been purchased and is now out of danger of development. There was a nice lunch and had some great entertainment (some funny imitations of the Blues Brothers and a great Patsy Cline act)!

Organizations/Participants:
Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation
North Georgia Regional Development Center
City of Dalton
Whitfield-Murray Historical Society
Mary Jane Mohr (local author)
(Other groups and participants/complete list not available).

The remainder of the day at the archives was pretty busy, with a couple of researchers and several calls. A woman brought by a beautiful old chenille spread to show us. It is supposed to be one of the Gone-With-The-Wind spreads. It is not known whether the spread was actually used in the movie, or was sold as a souvenir around the time that the movie was released. The spread was gorgeous, as chenille bedspreads go, with a lovely basket-and-vine design. More research would have to be done to find the origin of the spread, and the owner is going to continue to research it. The archives does own one of the actual spreads used in the movie, Gone With the Wind. (Dalton is in North Georgia.)