It was a beautiful morning for a walking tour, until it
started to pour down rain!
We had only gotten to the Old City Cemetery when our guide,
Richard Martin, said "looks like it might be too dangerous to
continue." The sky did have some lightning streaking across (or
was that my flash from my camera?). Either way, we were headed
back to the Tourism Building. One of our guest spoke up and
offered to let us wait out the rain at his place down the road
on Beaty Street, that sounded great to us all.
When we arrived at 211 South Beaty Street most of the tour
group didn't have a clue our offer came from Dr. Robert (Bob)
Glenn, the President of Athens State University! Wow, what a
unexpected honor to have a tour of the inside of the
Beaty-Mason-Garrett Home by its future resident Mr. and Mrs.
Glenn.
He home is in the process of being restored he told us, there
were drawing of house plans upon the walls. There were places
where the plaster had been peeled back to expose the brick, we
learned the walls were 6 bricks deep which was used to insulate
the home back in ca. 1826 when the home was constructed.
We stayed until the rain had subsided and cut the walk a
little short due to the time spent inside the Beaty Home. We
learned about the Vasser-Lovvorn Home, St. Timothy's, the
Clements Home and about the College Inn.
These free walking tours are a wonderful way to learn a
little about the history of our beautiful town, get a little
exercise and have possibly have an rare unexpected treat!
Every cloud has a silver lining...I feel we received one
today!
Teresa Todd
AthensPlus.com
June 19th 2010
