Four Regional Landmarks Featured in A Scenic Georgia Sketchbook

The Chapel at Callaway Gardens, Harris County

I first visited Callaway Gardens when I was in college in the 1970s. I saw the Chapel (Ida Cason Callaway Memorial Chapel) and was immediately moved by its beauty. Coincidentally, Callaway Gardens was a client for the first firm I worked with in Atlanta. The designer of the chapel, which dates from the early 1960s, no longer worked for the firm, but I would pull the original drawings and sketches from the file and admire the work. The chapel was designed by the architect Ed Moulthrop and the stained-glass windows were designed by Atlantan Joel Reeves. (Ed Moulthrop (1916-2003) was a self-taught woodturner and also known as the father of modern woodturning.)

Callaway Resort & Gardens is located in the southern foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The gardens were developed by Cason and Virginia Callaway. Cason Callaway was president of Callaway Mills in nearby LaGrange. The Callaways frequently picnicked with friends in Blue Springs near Hamilton. Cason discovered the rare plumleaf azalea growing near Blue Springs and bought 2,500 acres that included the wild-growing azalea in 1930. Eventually, the Callaways grew the acreage to include 40,000 acres. Cason and Virginia began creating the gardens in 1949 and eventually deeded the land to the Ida Cason Callaway Foundation. Ida Cason Callaway was the mother of Cason. The gardens were first opened to the public in 1952. Today the resort and gardens include a hotel and conference center, lodge and spa, golf courses, lake, the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center, a network of bicycle trails, the chapel and cottages.

Visitor’s Center, FDR State Park, Pine Mountain, Harris County

Pine Mountain, in Harris County, is one of the prettiest parts of Georgia. The FDR State Park Visitor's Center sits on top of Pine Mountain with a commanding view across the valley below. The stone building was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The craftsmanship in rock and stone that is associated with the CCC is very clearly and beautifully represented in the visitor's center.

F.D. Roosevelt State Park originally was sitting in Creek Indian Territory. The Creeks lost the land by treaty in 1825-26. F.D. Roosevelt State Park is Georgia's largest state park at 9,049 acres. There are more than 40 miles of trails, including the 23-mile Pine Mountain Trail. Dowdell's Knob is where Franklin Roosevelt sometimes picnicked and pondered world affairs. A life-size sculpture marks the spot, which is now preserved as an overlook within the park.

Located near F.D. Roosevelt State Park is Warm Springs Village. President Roosevelt brought national attention to Warm Springs, when, in 1924, he visited the town's naturally heated mineral springs fed pools for treatment for his polio-related paralysis. The warm springs maintain a constant eighty-eight-degree temperature year-round and flows at approximately nine hundred gallons per minute. Georgia State Parks has refurbished the pools, which include a touch pool for visitors to feel the actual warm water with an interpretive exhibit that tells the story of polio and its virtual eradication. Roosevelt founded the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute in 1927 as a polio rehabilitation facility that today focuses on empowering people with disabilities through vocational rehabilitation programs. Warm Springs Village is the historic commercial center for the area and has an array of specialty shops, restaurants and hotels.

Little White House, Warm Springs, Meriwether County

The Litte White House was Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Georgia getaway. While searching for a place to recover after he was stricken with polio in the early 1920s, Roosevelt and his family traveled to Warm Springs (twelve miles from the Little White House). He was fond of the community of Warm Springs and the namesake warm water springs. He sought therapy and relief from the polio that affected the use of his legs. He spent so much time in Warm Springs that he built a beautiful small home referred to as the Little White House.

FDR passed away in 1945 after suffering from a stroke while posing for a portrait in the Little White House, which is now a state-operated historic site. The unfinished portrait is located in a museum on the grounds, which also includes exhibits such as FDR's 1938 Ford Convertible with hand controls, his stagecoach and recordings of his "fireside chats," which were broadcast nationally over the radio. The house is beautifully preserved and furnished as it was during FDR's time. The garage building and the companion cottage are unique architectural treasures that flank the approach to the house.

Springer Opera House, Columbus, Muscogee County

At the time it was built in 1871, the Springer Opera House quickly gained the reputation as the finest theater between New Orleans and New York. Francis Joseph Springer, originally of the Alsace region in Europe, designed and built the opera house. The Springer's forty-foot-deep stage allowed for a wide variety of different shows of every description.

The Springer played host to many well-known actors, musicians and politicians. Edwin Booth played Hamlet on February 15, 1876, on his first southern tour after the war. "Blind Tom" Bethune, the African American musical prodigy born near Columbus, performed here often. Oscar Wilde and William Jennings Bryan lectured there; John L. Sullivan, the world champion, gave a boxing exhibition; and Mrs. John (Louisa Lane) Drew, grandmother of the Barrymores, starred in She Stoops to Conquer. John Philip Sousa's band performed at the Springer, as did Will Rogers. In 1928, Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered a "Happy Warrior" speech on behalf of presidential nominee Al Smith.

In 1902, the Springer was completely renovated and continued as a theater until the Great Depression. At that time, it became a movie house and eventually was closed in 1959 and threatened with demolition in 1964. The Columbus Little Theater Opera House Trustees was formed to prevent its destruction. On October 6, 1965, the theater reopened and in 1998-99 underwent a $12 million renovation. The Springer is the oldest professional theater in Georgia and one of only seven theaters in the United States designated as a National Historic Landmark.