Sam Burnham, Curator @C_SamBurnham An article in the AJC reports that Gwinnett Place Mall may be replaced with a mixed use development that would include a cricket stadium. The complex was once the leading regional retail center in Georgia. The mall opened in 1984, immediately reaping the rewards of being in the nation’s fastest growing county at the height of the popularity of shopping malls. The conditions that led to Gwinnett Place becoming a retail giant also helped lead to its demise. Gwinnett County’s growth built demand for retail shopping and that led to nearby Sugarloaf Mills and the massive Mall of Georgia. Those two centers increased the competition for shoppers and tenants alike. That competition, combined with a decline in popularity of shopping malls meant someone had to lose. The market has chosen Gwinnett Place for that role. In 2019 we see the other end of Gwinnett County’s explosive growth. People from all over the world have come to Gwinnett, bringing new cultures and new interests. This includes people from British Commonwealth nations like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and the Caribbean. In these nations, cricket is the sport of choice. With a demand for cricket on the rise, a competitive league has been proposed. Part of that proposal is a team in Gwinnett and that creates the need for a stadium. The explosive growth of the 80s and 90s dictates that stadium development requires redevelopment of real estate. So the struggling mall seems to be a likely target. The location and the obvious need for action. So a local man with an interest in starting the cricket league is making his move. While the evolution of baseball has dominated of America’s cricket-like experience, there is evidence that cricket was once as popular as baseball. During the Civil War both games were played by soldiers of both armies. This information has been obscured as completely as the truth of baseball’s origins. *Spoiler: Abner Doubleday enjoyed baseball but he didn’t invent it.* So while immigrants are driving the rising demand for cricket in Gwinnett, the game has roots in America. Those roots, combined with a plan for a more sustainable development where people could live, work, and play has our attention. That development would include a large patch of green that could rally a community. That’s even better.
0 Comments
Sam Burnham, Curator @C_SamBurnham Stumbling across an old homeplace can be an interesting experience. Whether it’s on a protected historic location, on an abandoned and overgrown plot, or still in some limited use, such a place always has a story. Sometimes that story is well documented but most of the time it isn’t. My first thought upon finding such a place is to be careful not to step in a partially closed well. After that though, my thoughts go to the history of the place. Who lived here? How did they make their living? How did they come to this place? Why did this place lose its usefulness? For some span of time someone made their stand on this spot. Some chose the location more than others. While coming across a slave dwelling is quite rare these days, it’s not unheard of, especially at preserved sites. Sharecropper and tenant cabins are a bit more numerous and these three locations usually chose the inhabitants rather than the other way around. In years gone by people might have migrated a little but typically never ventured as far as we do in our era and many would live their lives out and be buried within miles of their birthplace. Then consider how many of those birthplaces were these same home places. (Even among presidents, Jimmy Carter was the first born in a hospital.) To this day we can see locations both grand and humble, where people were born, grew up, made their living, fell in love, started families, died, and were buried all within property lines, be those defined or vague. Processing such a place is an exercise in imagination. The sights, the smells, the sounds - much has changed to be sure, but what remains? For abandoned places, imagination is often all we can go on. The style, size, and location of a home may give context clues if you know the history of the area but the rest is guesswork. In a more documented location imagination can fill in details. Example: Monticello has a three holed privy. Did Jefferson ever discuss policy or philosophy with Madison or Monroe while sitting in there? It’s kind of odd and I’d prefer to consider such conversations happening in the library but that doesn’t eliminate two of the privy holes. It also doesn’t eliminate the poor soul who was assigned to cleaning the privy and compensated with only the barest of necessities - possibly including a long since forgotten home along Mulberry Row. These places tell us about our past. They tell us who we are. Our roots are in these places. So many are already gone, others stand in various stages of decay. And it’s a process. Homes, just as businesses, industries, hospitals, they enter these same stages of decay so long as they aren’t bulldozed and replaced. These places have a life cycle like people and like people, some life cycles are longer than others. Some are more grand than others. Some are remembered longer than others. But like people, all of these life cycles connect generations like bridges, with each giving way to the next. It is important we remember our roots, understand where we came from, and how we got here because that all helps us understand who we are. That might sound like a lot to take away from finding a ramshackle cottage rotting in a privet thicket on an old country road. But when we consider that that cottage was once someone’s whole world, does this article even scratch the surface of what we can take from said cottage? Consider that all important sense of place and understand how important that place once was to someone. |
Sam B.Historian, self-proclaimed gentleman, agrarian-at-heart, & curator extraordinaire Social MediaCategories
All
Archives
November 2022
|