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Thursday, October 4, 2007
“Step back in time”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Steven Starling was 16 when he began volunteering for the Elisha Winn Fair.
Back then, Gwinnett families would loan antiques and other artifacts for the festivity. Starling would help load and unload the treasures for a fair that was - and still is - held the first weekend of October.
“I remember [a family] bringing a dining room suite just to use for that weekend,” said Starling, president of the Gwinnett Historical Society. On Wednesday, Starling gave me a tour of the 1811 Elisha Winn House, site of the county’s first courthouse and election. The furnished manse off Dacula Road anchors a one-room school, blacksmith shop, jail and mule barn.
Who’s Elisha Winn?
Well, he served as the justice of the Inferior Court of Jackson County. He was a state senator and state representative. He built the Winn house in Dacula and allowed the county to conduct business there. He died in 1843.
In 1978, the historical society bought the house for $12,000, then sold it to the county. The society leases the property from the county, which contributed $10,000 this fiscal year for maintenance and upkeep. The society maintains the grounds; this weekend’s fair is a fund-raiser for the site.
The way in which the society does its business has a critic, though, and that’s why the Badie Tour visited the historic grounds. Terry E. Mannin,, a lifetime Historical Society member, dislikes the direction the society has taken with the property. One issue that grates on him is the Jackson log cabin. Starling says the society is trying to figure out what to do with the structure and determine its historical value.
Manning, of Lilburn, wants it restored. Some work was done during his tenure as society president, but nothing since.
“I’ve been disheartened with the progress,” said Manning, who met me at the property on Wednesday.
Starling, along with other society members, showed up, too. Everybody acted with civility, though you could have tripped on the tension when Manning and I stepped inside the Winn house.
“This will forever be with us,” Bill Baughman, a trustee, told me earlier this week. “Bickering back and forth does nobody any good.”
So let’s just say Manning and the society officials view some issues differently, and leave it at that. Despite the disagreements, though, they share a worthy mission in a county with such a contemporary mind-set.
“We want this for the public,” said Starling, who praised Manning for his work helping to restore the Winn house. “We want it maintained and we want it to grow and prosper.”
And that’s where you come in.
Check out the fair. Watch an artisan work in the blacksmith shop (circa 1910). Sit in the one-room school (circa 1875). Tour the Winn house. Listen to some gospel and bluegrass.
Step back in time.
The 29th annual Elisha Winn Fair, held at 908 Dacula Road, takes place 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $3; children 12 and under get in free. For more information, contact the Gwinnett Historical Society at 770-822-5174.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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