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History Center renovates to make the past 'not boring'
By Joe Earle
They want more company. To show it,
they’re getting a new front door.
And a lot more.
The Atlanta History Center has begun
a dramatic renovation of its West Paces
Ferry Road facilities that will create a new
entrance for its museum building, a new
display of Atlanta history, add an historic
log cabin to its collection, and, if the city of
Atlanta signs off, could provide a new home
for the historic Cyclorama painting.
The center plans to bring more than
$50 million worth of construction projects
and new programs to its Buckhead campus
over the next few years.
“It’s definitely an exciting time,” History
Center Vice President Hillary Hardwick
said. “It’s a great time for Atlanta and it’s a
great time for the Atlanta History Center. We
used to say we were one of Atlanta’s best kept
secrets - - and we didn’t say that proudly. We
want to open up.”
The $21 million construction project
now under way will provide a new entry
drive off West Paces Ferry, move the front
of building closer to the street, create a new
entry facade for the museum, double the
size of the building’s atrium, add a central
hallway connecting the exhibits, and add a
coffee shop/gift shop/bookstore.
History Center officials hope that the
work will make the facility seem more
inviting, and will help change the way
Atlantans view history. “One of our big
goals is changing the perception of history
and the Atlanta History Center,” Hardwick
said.
What do they hope to convince people
about history? “It’s not boring,” History
JOE EARLE
Atlanta History Center President and CEO
Sheffield Hale tours the construction.
Center President and CEO Sheffield Hale
said. “It’s fun. It impacts their lives.”
In the past, he said, history “was taught
so badly that people thought it was names
and dates and dead folks, and had no
relation to them.” To change that, Hale and
Hardwick say the center is opening up both
physically and philosophically.
“The first thing I did when I got here
was take down the fences,” Hale said. “The
reaction I got was far beyond anything I
thought I’d see.... Who wants a chain-link
fence in their front yard? Those kind of
symbolic things matter. The architecture
matters. The way this old building looked
to people, they didn’t know what it was and
they didn’t come in.”
Hale says the new bookstore/gift
shop/coffee shop planned as part of the
renovation will provide one way the center
can become more welcoming to the public.
He hopes it becomes a place where the
center’s neighbors will come for coffee or
to relax. The shop will offer places to sit and
Wi-Fi connections, he said.
“It’s not going to be like any other
museum bookstore,” Hale said. “It’s going to
be a community living room. What I want
it to be is the coolest bookstore/cafe/living
room you’re ever been to.”
The center used focus groups to
determine what people wanted to see.
Audience feedback said one thing museum
goers wanted, Hale said, was coffee. “Coffee
and a chair,” Hardwick said.
As the building gets a new entrance
and facade, the center’s main exhibit
showing the history of Atlanta is being
re-tooled, too. The exhibit, which hadn’t
changed since it was installed in 1993,
has been removed, and center historians
are reworking it. They intend for the new
exhibit, scheduled to open in 2016, to be
more interactive and to do a better job of
bringing Atlanta history to life.
“Were going to talk about your
neighborhood,” Hale said. “One week it
could be Morningside, the next week it
could be Old Fourth Ward. Everybody
loves to talk about their neighborhood....
We think that construct of ‘neighborhoods’
might be a disciplined way for us to get out
into the community.”
And Hale wants the History Center
to get out more. He thinks the nonprofit
center should have a greater impact on the
community.
“When we started this project, one
of our goals was to really change the way
people feel as they walk onto this 33-acre
campus,” Hardwick said. “We’re changing.
... All of this helps reinforce that. It mirrors
the organization were becoming.” 03
Changes under way at the Atlanta History Center
The Atlanta History Center has begun a
major renovation of its facilities. Over the next
few years, more than $53 million is to be spent
on projects at the museum and on its grounds.
The work, History Center officials say, is
intended to make the facility more visible from
the street and more inviting to visitors.
1. New entrance from West Paces Ferry
and new atrium. Construction is under way to
build a new entrance to the History Center and
enlarge the building’s atrium to 5,300 square
feet. The $21 million project will change the
look of the building and add a new gift shop/
coffee shop/bookstore that center officials hope
will be used by neighbors as well as museum
visitors. The plan includes moving the front of
the building closer to West Paces, landscaping
the drive to reflect the center’s gardens, and
adding a hallway through the building that will
connect all the center’s exhibits.
Opens 2015.
2. New history of Atlanta display. History
Center historians are working on a new display
of center artifacts and documents, and plan
to tell the story of the city of Atlanta in a new
way. It’s the first reworking of the center’s main
exhibit since the building opened in 1993. The
new exhibit, the center says, will allow visitors
to see, hear, touch and explore the exhibits
through new media.
Opens 2016.
3. Cyclorama. The History Center
has raised more than $32 million to restore
and build a new home for the 128-year-old
painting “The Battle of Atlanta,” which now is
on display at the Cyclorama in Grant Park. If
city of Atlanta officials approve the deal, the
History Center plans to build a new home for
the painting as one of its displays. The money
raised includes $10 million for maintenance
of the painting. History Center conservators
plan to restore the painting to its original size,
adding 3,268 square feet that was removed
in 1921, and hang the painting the way it was
originally displayed.
4. Elias Wood family cabin. The center is
moving to its campus a log cabin that originally
was located in the Hollywood Road area. The
cabin, home to Elias and Jane Wood, was built
on land ceded to Georgia by the Creek Indians
in 1821, and dates to Atlanta’s earliest days, the
center says.
Opening fall 2014.
5. Goizueta Gardens. A $3 million gift
from the Goizueta Foundation will be used
to rehabilitate and tie together the History
Center’s 22 acres of gardens, which include six
public gardens that illustrate the horticultural
history of the area.
Ongoing.
Source: Atlanta History Center
Located 4.S
mlloi south at
979 Crescent Ave
Atlanta. GA
30309
McElreath Hall
Tickets ft information
e Rhododendron
Garden
Smith Farm
House
Amphitheater
Entrance “
Atlanta History
Museum
AREA CLOSED
DURING CONSTRUCTION
Smith Family
Farm Gardens
VeteransA
n l
Property Closes at 5:30 pm
Gift Shops Close at 5:00 pm
Cherry Sims
Garden
AtlantalNtownPaper.com
October 2014 | INtOWIl 5
