Each Saturday, we shine a spotlight on a local neighborhood, city or community. To suggest a place for us to visit, e-mail H.M. Cauley at hm_cauley@yahoo.com or call 770- 744-3042.
Sugar Hill 75th Anniversary
August 2
A day-long celebration includes free events followed by dinner and a concert with the Bacon Brothers. Combination tickets to both those events are $45.
770-945-6716; sugarhill75th.org.
In 2000, Marc Cohen became the 50th homeowner in his Sugar Hill subdivision. The main thoroughfare of the area was a narrow road that wound past an old city building. About 5,000 residents lived in the tiny Gwinnett town, but things were changing rapidly.
Today, there are 450 homeowners in Cohen’s community, part of Sugar Hill’s roughly 20,000 inhabitants. The old city structure has been replaced by a modern city hall anchored by a green space and outdoor amphitheater. A sports complex and theater are in the works.
“We’re trying to build a downtown, and we’ve been very aggressive about bringing economic development into the city,” said Cohen, who has been a city council member for 11 years. “We know there used to be a theater, a bowling alley and restaurants here, so we’re trying to bring back a downtown that existed 40 or 50 years ago.”
This year, the city has been looking even farther back to 1939, the year it was recognized as a town. A variety of events has been taking place to mark that 75th anniversary, including installing a time capsule in the City Hall rotunda.
“We compiled all kinds of materials from the community: books written by local authors, historical photos, programs from city events, pictures, coins, a sports jersey from a local school, even an iPhone,” said Cohen. “We learned a lot about the history of the town while we were doing it. It will be opened in another 75 years, and though I won’t be here to see it, maybe my son will.”
One of the historical mysteries that no one can quite decipher is precisely how the town got its name. But there are two popular theories.
“The more accepted is that somebody was bringing a cart of sugar from the railway, a wheel on cart broke, and sugar bags spilled,” said Cohen. “So this became known as the place where the sugar spilled. But there’s also another that said when there were gold mines in the area, but the gold had the consistency of sugar, so when you ran your fingers over it, it crumbled. Whether these are true or not, we don’t know, but we do know the area was called Sugar Hill long before 1939.”
Those stories and more about Sugar Hill’s past are being compiled into a coffee table book that will be on sale during anniversary events planned for Aug. 2. The day begins with a 5K run, a parade, and a festival of arts, crafts and music. The evening wraps with dinner and a concert at the amphitheater. The highlight of the night is set to be a performance by the Bacon Brothers, Kevin (yes, that Kevin Bacon) and his brother Michael. City Manager Paul Radford expects the duo will bring record crowds to the heart of town.
“That’s what we’d like - to have people from Sugar Hill and around the area come and celebrate with us,” he said.
