Although several in the audience at Monday’s Decatur City Commission meeting raised the issue, Mayor Patti Garrett said she had no new information regarding city’s potential purchase of the United Methodist Children’s Home. Two weeks earlier she announced during her State of the City address that the city is “in conversation” with the UMCH regarding its 77 acres.
During the public comment portion, Jay Pryor, a distant relative to UMCH founder Jesse Boring even gave a brief biography of his kinsman. Boring, who lived from 1807-90, was a Methodist circuit preacher and medical doctor who, as a young man, joined the California gold rush and later the confederate army.
He founded the Methodist Home in Norcross in 1871, before moving to its present location in 1873.Boring is buried in front of the administration building, the only known grave on the site.
“We speak,” Pryor said, “in support of preserving the chapel (built in 1906) and the grave site.”
Mayor Pro Tem Fred Boykin reminded the audience there was no guarantee the city would successfully complete the purchase.
“For now,” Boykin said, “we are the buyers. The sellers have the choice of what to do with the property. Rest assured if we purchase it, we will respect the land and its history.”
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