The Galloway School has again delayed a controversial plan to demolish its historic Gresham Building, citing ongoing neighborhood discussions. Meanwhile, an alumnus has launched a petition calling for the building to be saved.
Laurel David, an attorney for the school, said it has deferred City zoning applications related to the plan until January “in order to continue our discussions with neighborhood representatives.” She declined to comment as to whether those discussions include saving all or part of the Gresham Building.
A Change.org online petition calling for a halt to the demolition plan was launched on Nov. 21 by Jane Williamson Norley, a 1976 Galloway graduate who lives in Pennsylvania. “We urge those in power to reconsider this decision and explore alternative solutions that preserve the integrity of the Gresham building while still addressing any potential issues or needs for modernization,” reads the petition in part.
As of the early afternoon of Nov. 29, the petition had 212 signers.
The Gresham is the public face of the school, located at 215 Chastain Park Ave. in Buckhead. The building is the 112-year-old former Fulton County Almshouse, where the school has been based since its founding in 1969. The school itself got the column-fronted building listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014, an honorary status that does not prevent private demolition. A representation of the building’s facade is used as the school’s logo.
Last month, the school announced a campus renovation plan that includes replacing the Gresham with a new Upper Learning Building roughly twice its size. The school has spoken without detail of “incorporating elements of the original building into the design of the new building.” The campus plan has other elements, including the renovation of the Sims Early Learning Center.
The school has said it originally intended to keep the Gresham but found it has many issues, including “structural integrity and accessibility,” “functionality and adaptability,” and “environmental impact and sustainability.”
Total demolition has been opposed by such organizations as the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, the Atlanta Preservation Center (APC) and the Buckhead Heritage Society, as well as by a group of alumni that includes Norley.
Georgia Trust President and CEO W. Wright Mitchell repeated his organization’s concerns in a Nov. 14 SaportaReport interview. He said that “it certainly would be a tragedy to lose a National Register building” and that the school had not yet engaged with the Georgia Trust or shared any studies.
“I understand the challenge of having an old home, effectively, as a building on your campus,” said Mitchell, “but there certainly are ways to adaptively reuse those buildings, and it doesn’t mean that you can’t also have an annex off the back where you have classrooms.”
Mitchell also echoed the APC’s recent call for City landmarking designation – which would prevent any demolition, among other oversight – for a sister building at 135 Chastain Park Ave. that is now the City-owned Chastain Arts Center. As an almshouse, the Gresham Building was built to house white residents in the era of racist segregation. The Chastain Arts Center building was constructed as the version for Black residents.
“That really needs to be landmarked so that it does not fall under the threat of demolition,” Mitchell said of the Chastain Arts Center.
The arts center is operated by the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA). OCA Executive Director Camille Love said she was unaware of the landmarking idea but emphasized the City sees it as a “useful resource” and intends to keep it that way.
“We have no plans or desire to demolish it,” said Love. On the other hand, she said, it would be “wonderful” if a historic designation would make the structure eligible for grants or other funds.
“Our big challenge is just to keep it maintained. That’s our challenge,” she said. “Any resources that are available to the City for maintaining our assets … would be greatly desirable.”
She noted the City had the building restored several years ago, including a return of what is believed to be its original paint colors.
APC Executive Director David Yoakley Mitchell said an immediate funding benefit of City landmark status would be making some kind of maintenance funding permanently mandatory rather than optional. Landmark status also could make the structure eligible for some grant funding from such organizations as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, he said. If the structure were eligible for and listed on the National Register, that also offers grant eligibility.
Mitchell at the APC noted that the Gresham Building demolition also was a surprise, coming less than 10 years after the National Register listing. “It’s been shown time and time again the National Register isn’t protecting you,” he said. “The landmark [designation] is.”
As for the Gresham Building itself, Mitchell said the APC “continues to have correspondence, discussions and exchanges with concerned alumni and residents,” and has also spoken to the school’s legal representation.
“This is a complicated process and we have to embrace a sustainable outcome [and] resolution,” he added. “But we are not there and many meetings are yet to be had to ensure that we achieve that outcome. We also have to remember that this is a school, and its sustainability is intertwined in the final result. In sum, we are advocates for historic preservation and we are well accustomed to the challenges of these situations.”
Thank you for the excellent, ongoing coverage of this urgent topic. The community of alumni and supporters of preservation at large are indeed coming together quickly to propel the effort for adaptive reuse of what has long been “the face” of The Galloway School and a community icon. I urge everyone interested in architectural preservation of history, as well as, quality of life issues to sign the petition linked in the article. Time is of the essence.
Jane – as a Galloway parent with multiple children currently at the school, and as a resident of the Chastain Park neighborhood, my wife and I had a similar response and concern over the loss of Grisham. Honestly, I was very upset initially. However, after talking to many other parents and listening to the school’s leaders about the challenges they encountered during a months long architectural and engineering analysis of what it would take to preserve Grisham, and what a renovated Grisham would be limited to, it became apparent there really wasn’t any ability to preserve the building while at the same time adequately renovating it in a way that propelled the facilities forward. Furthermore, while a renovated Grisham would look the same on the front, it still would effectively have to be torn down and rebuilt because it is literally falling apart. So, in the end we decided it’s more important to do what is best for the students and move forward with a new building that provides our kids the best environment possible, even if that means losing Gresham, and the plans for the new building are amazing. I am a fan of trying to use architecture that more closely reflects the look and facade of Gresham, but I no longer support trying to preserve it.
So please before you start trying to jump into the thick of this from 750 miles away, please consider what is going to be best for generations of kids versus simply trying to hold on to the facade of a building. The school is so much more than that. Our kids are now so excited about the prospects of the new facilities that have been designed to incorporate all of their feedback, and I would hate to see you and others take that away and effectively force the school to just put a bandaid on a problem.
SCAD in Savannah has been very successful preserving and even utilizing historic buildings there. They do this as a learning project in architecture. Perhaps consult with them? Chastain Park has fascinating history. Galloway is part of this history, but should consider themselves very lucky to be able to use the park as their back yard. Just bc the restaurant now has a Michelin star doesn’t mean it didn’t serve balogna sandwiches to motorists back in the day. Galloway prides itself as being an art school. Preserve the history & Galloway’s uniqueness. Don’t try to follow the herd and build meaningless McMansions. It’s ok to keep being special. Find a way. This area of the park was built for the poor. Don’t turn that spirit around to simply cater to the rich. There are lessons to be learned here. None of these buildings should be torn down.