ATLANTA — The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation last week named an antebellum railroad depot in Northwest Georgia and nine other structures to its annual list of “Places in Peril.”
The historic Tunnel Hill railroad depot was built using limestone from nearby Chetogetta Mountain beginning in 1848, the same year work on a nearby 1,477-foot-long tunnel started. Both were built as the state-owned Western & Atlantic Railroad was constructed to connect Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tenn.
For years, the depot was part of a mill that was constructed around the historic building.
Overall, the limestone bricks remain in “good condition,” the Georgia Trust said. However, the organization identified “structural damage, including mortar erosion, the lack of an overhanging eave, and cracked lintels over the original freight door openings” as contributing to the threat of the building.
The Georgia Trust suggested partnering with the city of Tunnel Hill “to obtain increased recognition of the building by generating knowledge and interest in the role the depot has played in local and state history.”
