This is "Actual Factual Gwinnett," a regular column in which Tyler Estep answers reader questions about Gwinnett happenings and history (like this one about the $4.7 million project replacing that old Lowe’s in Lilburn). Check out the form below to submit your own questions — and enjoy!
Today, friends, we journey down Nostalgia Road, with a pitstop in the Land of Strange Icons from Gwinnett’s Past.
Reader Jill P. writes: "What happened to the Dutch Mill in Duluth?"
Killer mill question, Jill. Let’s discuss.
First, for the unfamiliar: The Dutch Mill Motel was an, um, motel, that had an, um, big Dutch-looking windmill on top of it (see the above postcard, courtesy of the Gwinnett Historical Society). It and its accompanying drive-in restaurant opened on Buford Highway in Duluth in 1948.
It became a sit-down restaurant in the ‘50s and remained a happening place, the kind that drew vacationers on their way to Florida and brought the suburban dream to life -- blushing teenagers in budding relationships and families gathering over hearty meals cooked from scratch.
Lowry and Lenora Arnold built and ran the place.
“More marriages than I can count on both hands began at the drive-in,” their daughter, Jean Corley, told The AJC in 1998.
How lovely. So what happened? A gentleman named Ray Burns — a former appliance salesman at the Atlanta Sears Roebuck facility that's now Ponce City Market — bought the Dutch Mill in the '60s and ran it for 23 years, according to AJC archives.
Interstate expansion and the encroachment of chain restaurants ultimately helped fuel its demise, and it was sold to investors in 1988.
The motel was leased out and operated for a few years and, at one point, the restaurant became an antique shop. A 1992 article called the once-proud institution “something resembling a last-chance stop for motorists heading into the Twilight Zone.”
The city of Duluth toyed with the expensive task of helping restore the Dutch Mill to its original glory — until a 1998 fire destroyed both the idea and most of the building.
It was demolished.
Credit: LOUIE FAVORITE
Credit: LOUIE FAVORITE
Wow. So sad. It is indeed. But the old icon now has a new life, at least in a sense.
The city of Duluth posted on Facebook this week that the original sign for the motel has been hung on a wall at Parsons Alley — the still-under-construction restaurant and retail hub that's budding downtown.
In a joint partnership with developers of Parsons Alley & the City of Duluth the 1948 Dutch Mill Motel sign has found a...
Posted by City of Duluth, Georgia - City Hall on Thursday, December 29, 2016
Parsons Alley has already brought a Dreamland Bar-B-Q, and plans to include a fancy new brewpub, a Korean steakhouse and doughnut shop have also been announced.
So while it's unlikely to have any carhops or cruising teens, Duluth's future will serve up at least a tiny slice of nostalgia, too.
— I, Tyler Estep, am a staff writer with the AJC and a Gwinnett County native. To submit “Actual Factual Gwinnett” questions, contact me at tyler.estep@coxinc.com, @ByTylerEstep on Twitter or via the form below.
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