Memorial Park Operations Building
Memorial Park Operations Building
Athens, GA
The Memorial Park Operations Building, located within Memorial Park, is one of the few surviving Spanish Colonial Revival-style buildings in Clarke County.
Originally constructed in 1925 as the Fairhaven Hospital to care for tuberculosis patients, the building comprises two wings connected by a corridor with a central service block. It is significant as one of the earliest racially integrated medical facilities in the area. Currently the building is used as offices, support space for park staff and as performance space for a local theater group.
The completed rehabilitation of the existing building brought it back to its 1926 appearance, while making several adaptations to suit the needs of today's users. The clay tiles on the mansard were restored on both wings. The Recreation Hall is now a column-free space with a glue-lam ceiling structure and a removable central partition wall. The restrooms were redesigned to be ADA accessible.
In order to provide Athens Creative Theater with dedicated workshop space and Black Box Theater, the west courtyard was enclosed with a new transparent west wall with black-out shades, and the existing exterior courtyard walls became the interior walls for the space on the other three sides.