(Editor’s note: A previous online version of this story should have included the current photo of the Prontaut-Henry House.)

More of Augusta’s history is being preserved, but not without important help.

Four Augusta properties recently joined 21 others statewide in being recognized as exceptional examples of historic preservation by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation.

Much of the owners’ successes in protecting these buildings can be attributed to the number of tax incentives and grants available to historic-property owners who want to protect their investments but lack readily available funds. Contact the Georgia Department of Community Affairs’ Historic Preservation Division by visiting www.dca.ga.gov/georgia-historic-preservation-division to learn more about the full array of available state, federal and private preservation funds.

Force-Jackson House, 922 Greene St.

Built in 1853, the Italianate-style was a private home until the YWCA moved in by 1916 from cramped quarters above a drug store at Seventh and Broad streets. By 1993 it was home to St. Stephen’s Ministry, a transitional housing facility for homeless people with HIV and AIDS.

In 2019, Paul King of Rex Properties began a $1.6 million project renovating 922 Greene into apartments. The planned number of apartments fluctuated, but the home became 12 apartments, with the original floor plan mostly intact while preserving floors, doors, windows, mantels and exterior elements.

Perkins-Cullum House, 510 Greene St.

The home was built in 1902 by Henry C. Perkins, who in 1891 founded the machine shop that became GIW, or Georgia Iron Works. His daughter Gertrude Perkins Cullum, wife of Augusta department store owner St. Julian Cullum, inherited the house in 1928. She established the Cullum School of Speech Reading, a school in the back yard for people with hearing problems, and the Augusta Club for the Hard of Hearing.

Becoming apartments and for a short time a ceramics workshop, the building’s condition declined until local preservation group Historic Augusta posted the house on its 2015 Endangered Properties List.

In converting the house to eight apartments, owners Mark and Christy Beckham kept the original floor plan and the house’s heart-pine floors, doors and mosaic porch.

Prontaut-Henry House, 407 Telfair St.

The house dates to about 1875 and until the mid-20th century was a private home. Later serving as law offices and the district office for U.S. Rep. Doug Barnard, the vacant property made Historic Augusta’s 2019 Endangered List.

Owner Mark Donahue kept not only the heart-pine floors but also original plaster, trim and window frames when redesigning the house. It’s now six loft-style apartments, with new heating-and-air systems, modern kitchens and updated plumbing.

Augusta Warehouse & Compress Co., 1812 Slaton St.

Designed by famed Southern architect Lloyd Preacher in 1916, the Augusta Warehouse & Compress Co. is the only remaining cotton warehouse complex from the early 20th century in Augusta. It once could hold up to 60,000 bales of cotton. The “compress” in the name refers to the process when bales from cotton gins are compressed to half-size for easier transport.

Albany-based developer Pace Burt converted the 35 industrial compartments into 140 apartments collectively renamed The Loft.

“Facing challenges like severely neglected roofs and the need to balance existing character with modern needs, the preservation effort successfully retained the district’s historical significance,” according to the Georgia Trust.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Two people have died in separate crashes across the region on Thursday.

MCDUFFIE COUNTY

A man has died after a crash with an 18-wheeler on Interstate 20 in McDuffie County.

The McDuffie County Coroner’s Office says the crash happened at mile marker 173.

The coroner’s office says 53-year-old Mark Delafchell, of Athens, Ga., died in the crash.

The call came in at 12:19 p.m., officials say.

The coroner’s office says Delafchell ran into the rear of an 18-wheeler, while slowing for traffic.

Delafchell was transported to Doctors Hospital Trauma where he succumbed to his injuries at 1:39 p.m., the McDuffie County Coroner’s Office says.

McDuffie County Coroner’s Office and the Georgia State Patrol are investigating the crash.

ORANGEBURG COUNTY

In Orangeburg County, troopers are investigating a deadly crash that happened around 10:44 a.m. on US 21 at WaterSpring Road.

A 2021 Kenworth truck was traveling south on US 21. The Honda was traveling north when the vehicles collided.

The driver of the Honda died on the scene, according to troopers.

We’ve reached out to the Orangeburg County Coroner’s Office for more information.

Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.

ATLANTA (AP) — In a move that could have ramifications in Richmond County, the Georgia Supreme Court agrees that someone needs to issue a legally final ruling on whether county commissioners can draw their own electoral districts.

But the nine justices on Thursday also agreed it would be improper to rule on that question in a lawsuit brought by two Cobb County residents, reversing a lower court judgment that had thrown out the county commissioners’ own map.

The ruling that Catherine and David Floam weren’t qualified to get a declaratory judgment means that, for now, residents in Georgia’s third-largest county will elect two county commissioners in districts mapped by the Democratic-majority Cobb County Commission, and not under the earlier map drawn by the Republican-majority legislature. Voting is underway in advance of May 21 primaries.

“To be clear, the fact that there are two competing maps does create significant uncertainty for many,” Justice Nels Peterson wrote for a unanimous court in explaining why the couple didn’t qualify for declaratory judgment. “But the Floams have not shown that this uncertainty affects their future conduct. They have not established that they are insecure about some future action they plan to take.”

The dispute goes back to Republican lawmakers’ decision to draw election district lines for multiple county commissions and school boards that were opposed by Democratic lawmakers representing Democratic-majority counties.

In most states, local governments are responsible for redrawing their own district lines once every 10 years, to adjust for population changes after U.S. Census results are released. But in Georgia, while local governments may propose maps, local lawmakers traditionally have to sign off.

If Cobb County wins the power to draw its own districts, many other counties could follow. In 2022, Republicans used their majorities to override the wishes of local Democratic lawmakers to draw districts in not only Cobb, but in Fulton, Gwinnett, Augusta-Richmond and Athens-Clarke counties. Democrats decried the moves as a hostile takeover of local government.

But the Cobb County Commission followed up by asserting that under the county government’s constitutional home rule rights, counties could draw their own maps. After Cobb County Superior Court Judge Ann Harris ruled the move unconstitutional in January, the ruling was stayed pending appeal. That led to candidates trying to qualify under both sets of maps, with elections officials ultimately deciding the county-drawn map was still in effect.

Ray Smith, the lawyer who represented the Floams, said he thought his candidates did qualify for declaratory judgment.

“I think it’s going to lead to more chaos,” Smith said, although he predicted that eventually someone who qualified would bring a case to the Supreme Court and it would overturn the commission’s action. Another lawsuit is pending from Alicia Adams, a Republican who tried to qualify as a commission candidate under the legislative map lines but was rejected because she lived outside the commission-drawn district.

“Cobb County should not be out celebrating,” Smith said. “They should be concerned that they have problems and they’re going to have problems until they resolve this.”

Indeed, in a concurring opinion, Justice Charlie Bethel seemed to implore commissioners themselves to seek a court judgment, warning that if the commission ultimately loses, commissioners could be thrown off the board.

“A delayed loss by Cobb could give rise to calamitous consequences inflicting serious expense and practical hardship on its citizens,” Bethel wrote. “Accordingly, I urge Cobb to act with all dispatch in obtaining a final answer on the legal merits of its chosen path.”

But Ross Cavitt, a county spokesperson, indicated it’s unlikely the county will take action.

“The county attorney’s office does not believe there is a proper action to file,” Cavitt wrote in an email.

Copyright 2024 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.