Ware County  GA  History  Hotel Ware

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by 
Barbara Winge barbarawinge@yahoo.com


http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/ware.htm Table of Contents page: 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm Georgia Table of Contents:

HOTEL WARE COMPLETION WAS COMMUNITY DREAM
WAYCROSS JOURNAL-HERALD, Monday, April 22, 1974
[Copy of an article that was published in the Wayrcoss Journal
Herald on Thursday, February 21, 1929]

     The Hotel Ware is a material evidence of the community
spirit in Waycross, for in reality, this is a community hotel.
     For many, many years, Waycross talked about the need
for a new hotel, the talk beginning when the LaGrande Hotel
was burned.
     In 1926 the Waycross and ware County Chamber of Com-
merce named a hotel committee with H. D. Bunn as general
chairman and Will C. Parker as campaign chairman.
     This committee appointed a large list of workers and the
campaign proved a success.  The needed amount of money
was subscribed.
     Just at this juncture an out-of-town hotel man promised to
errect a hotel in Waycross without any cost what so ever to
the city.  In view of this offer it was thought best not to collect
the suscriptions that had been made.  However this promise
was never kept.
     Thus, despite a successful campaign, Waycross was again 
without definite prospects of a new hotel.  Naturally, there
ensued a period of depression.  The man who more than any-
one else, held on during this period to the hope and possiblity
of a new hotel was Herbert Wilson.  Practically single handed
he kept the movement from dying.
     As a rseult of these efforts at a joint meeting of the Civic
Clubs the winning proposal was to build a community hotel.
Herbert Wilson was named chairman of the joint committee 
and F. D. Hereford campaign chairman.
     Again workers were named and another hotel campaign
was launched.  This campaign proved successful and the
money was subscribed to meet the part Waycross was to pay
in fincancing the hotel.
     At the end of the suscription campaign the stockholders who
served as officers and directors were:  L. B. Harrell, president; F.
D, Hereford, vice president; H. D. Bunn, secretary; Herbert
Wilson, J. T. Watt, Judge J. L. Crawley, Dan Lott, Jack Williams,
C. L. Spear, W. D. Stovall, H. D. Bunn, Oscar Lott, Paul Harley,
Dan T. Cowart, R. B. Zackry, and Will Smith directors.  (This 
list of directors is incomplete because of the damaged newspaper
from which that article was taken.)
     The city of Waycross always will have a warm memory of the
efficiency, the tencacity and the actual love with which Mr.
Harrell and his fellow officers and directors took hold of and 
accomplished their task.
     We people in Waycross know today how hard that task was 
and how often it seemed that the movement could make no pro-
gress.  There were subscriptions that could not be collected, some
subscribers moved away, and others had to be made.   Often  
those who had already subscribed had to be asked to increase
their subscriptions.
     Yet through all these depressing conditions President Harrell
refused to give up, saying all the task assigned him would be ac-
complished.  His loyal persistence and the unfailing co-operation
of his officers and directors brought success.
     The day came when Waycross finally had its share of the fin-
ancing arranged.  The citizens and Southern Bank of Savannah,
as soon as this was done, agreed to handle the bonds.  The con- 
tract would be let.
     On Saturday, November 5, 1927, the contract for the construc-
tion of the Waycross Community Hotel was let to T. A. Monk of
Bradenton, Fla.
    The plans for the new hotel had been drawn by Wallin & Comer,
of Savannah and Waycross.
     In just a few days Waycross people were interestingly watch-
ing the excavation for foundations.
     The work of the building of a Waycross Community Hotel has
actually started.
     Today it stands completed and hundreds of loyal Waycross
citizens have the satisfaction of knowing that they had a share in
the consturction, that they helped to meet an urgent vital need of
the city in which they live.


[Contributed by Barbara Walker Winge,  <barbarawinge@yahoo.com>



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