May is National Historic Preservation month and in Baldwin County, Georgia’s Old Capital Heritage Center at the Depot, Inc. (GOCHC) has been a forefront nonprofit organization that works continuously to preserve local history.
“Communities that embrace historic preservation realize economic advantages as well as enhance the quality of life for their residents,” said Amy Wright, executive director of Georgia’s Old Capital Heritage Center at the Depot, Inc. “With so many forces separating us today, our history is one of the things that binds us to one another and to our heritage as a nation, as a community and as people.” Since its founding in
1999, GOCHC has worked on a mission to identify, interpret, preserve and communicate the historic artistic and cultural heritage of Baldwin County and the Oconee River basin. As such, the center has an extensive history of its own to get where it is today.
“This organization was originally created through a grassroots movement to find a way to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding of Baldwin County,” said Wright. “The project at that time was to create a museum of local history.”
In 1999, the Georgia’s Antebellum Capitol Museum Society (GACMS) was established with the goal of building a museum of regional history on the ground floor of the Old Capitol Building in Milledgeville. Over the next four years, the Old Capitol Historical Society would work to merge with GACMS and would take ownership of the 1825 Brown-Stetson-Sanford House (BSSH) in the Historic District of Milledgeville.
“The Brown-Stetson-Sanford House is a building with years of history linked to it by people who made grand impacts on Milledgeville. There are so many opportunities to offer towards the future of education by preserving a home like this,” said Wright.
The 1825 Brown-Stetson-Sanford House is a well-preserved home that holds a great value of history for Milledgeville. The home is presently used as a museum, event space and GOCHC hosts many educational tours and events in the home for schools and the wider community. Most recently, the “War Comes to the Capital” tour was hosted in the home that allowed students to interact with costumed volunteers to discover what life was like in a Milledgeville home during the Civil War.
“War Come to the Capital is one of our most popular tours that takes visitors through five different settings with costumed volunteers sharing aspects of life in the mid nineteenth century,” said Wright. “We also have sponsored a Junior Historic preservation program that encourages middle schoolers to get involved with Milledgeville History and the preservation efforts that are ongoing. So, we continuously make the effort to educate and encourage others to be interested in history.”
In 2004, the name of the organization was changed to Georgia’s Old Capital Museum Society (GOCMS) to reflect the museum’s expanded mission and to celebrate the Georgia’s Old Capital Museum being open to the public. According to the GOCHC website, from 2006 through 2016, that museum would serve over 90,000 visitors with an economic impact on the area of $4,193,482 (2009-2016).
“There were eight galleries in the museum. History began with the arrival of the hunter gatherers and continued into the early 20th century,” said Wright. “Our museum is now in storage awaiting the renovation of the interior of our current project.”
In 2017, the museum moved to the newly renovated “Just Imagine Cottage'' at 95 Depot Circle Drive in Renaissance Park, the campus of the former Central State Hospital. Upon moving, the center then began their current preservation project, Destination: Depot Project. Destination: Depot Project aims to renovate and preserve the adjacent train depot for a regional Heritage Center.
The Depot Project holds great significance because it will not only expand the educational opportunities offered by the heritage center, but it also preserves a very important train station from Milledgeville’s history. The Depot was built as a Victorian structure that stood in the center of the former Central State Hospital. According to the National Register of Historic Places, the significance of this building derives from its historical structure that depicts the time period very well and its importance to transportation historians as a railroad auxiliary building.
“The Victorian building at Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia, is a good example of a nineteenth century railroad building,” wrote Kenneth H. Thomas Jr, historic preservation section member of the Department of Natural Resources, on the register. “This building provides an interesting, almost playful, contrast in design to the more severe buildings of the hospital complex, as well as more rural railroad structures.”
The Depot project is a $5.5 million project and once completed, will include a lobby/Native American Gallery, a theater and community venue space, a café, a combined bookstore and gift shop, exhibits and offices. The Just Imagine Cottage is then planned to be used as a STEAM Education Center. When this project is complete, GOCHC will have preserved a third historical building in Milledgeville.
“Trustees of Georgia’s Old Capital Heritage Center at The Depot, Inc., have now completed the renovation of the loading dock on the west side of The Depot for a community open-air stage with an adjacent green room to support performances. In June, work will begin on the installation of a fire suppression system for the building,” said Wright when asked about the project's progress.
The Old Capital Heritage Center at the Depot, Inc. has an extensive background of its own that has led the organization to preserve the history of Baldwin County and the Oconee River basin. During the month of May, take the time to visit one of their locations and learn more about preservation movements in the community. To become a member of the center, visit https://thedepotga.org/membership/.