Lingering effects of Atlanta’s downtown fire

This time of year the streets of Atlanta Texas are typically bustling with Christmas shoppers looking for that unique gift they’re not going to find at Walmart. However this year it may be as important as ever for local consumers to get to Downtown, Atlanta to support the local businesses who have been impacted by the fire. October 17 saw the town agasp as two historic downtown businesses burnt to the ground, as well as causing major smoke damage to others around the two buildings.

Though there is usually healthy competition to which local business the consumer will spend their money on, downtown businesses share a symbiotic relationship with each other. The more businesses that are open the greater the allure for town folk and tourists to eat and shop in the community. They see that too having recently come together to start the Atlanta Downtown Merchants Association.

For this reason, the businesses that are currently still open downtown have been waiting for the businesses that have been affected by the fire to reopen their doors again. Operators for Cass County Junction and Ole Rustic Treasures & gifts told the Journal recently how much they miss the businesses and the traffic that they brought in to Hiram Street specifically.

The loss of the businesses has not been the only factor that has hampered the flow of money. Also attributing to the low walk-through traffic on Hiram street is the ongoing residue and visual reminders of the fire itself. City Manager David Cockrell says that they “are working with property owners and abatement consultants in an effort to get the buildings safely on the ground and removed. Unfortunately, both buildings contained varying amounts of asbestos which complicate those efforts, slows the processes and add additional expense.”

“The City Council is scheduled to declare both structures as nuisances and order the demolitions this week. Neither of the buildings in question is public, so we will continue to work with the owners to give them reasonable time to demolish their respective buildings,” says Cockrell.

Unfortunately, continued Cockrell, “there is no way these buildings will be down ahead of the downtown Christmas events this Saturday. So we ask patrons of those events to avoid both the front and rear of those buildings. We will have barricades in the front on Hiram Street with officers in the area.”

While muddling through the transition Miranda Johnson the directory or the Atlanta Area chamber of commerce believes it is essential right now to support the local businesses through the process. “Downtown had been on the rising up until and through the fires, and we want to keep the momentum moving in that same positive direction. In order to do so, it’s essential that the community embrace our downtown and a shop local mentality that we all act on.”

The only owner that saw their business completely burn down was the East Texas Tumblers Gymnastics, where the fire started. The Allday building also was lost to the fire but it was not currently used. For Becky McClure from East Texas Tumblers Gymnastics getting back up and going was essential, as much for the kids as for herself.

For Becky, she first found out about it when she was on her way to Texarkana. She was helping a friend with their business when her husband, Atlanta Football Coach Matt McClure called to tell her that the her building was on fire. She was in shock, “Your kidding right.” Becky explains that she was just there 45 minutes ago. A friend of hers left a check on the counter and left. Upon leaving she remembered smelling smoke at the time but thought it was just a fire outside. At that point her friend did not see smoke in the building.

Once she got to the location all she could do is watch her building burn to the ground over the next eight hours . After the fire, she said she talked to the ATF guy and they told her that the fire started on the second floor. She was also told that someone started a fire upstairs to keep warm but didn’t understand why that would be the case because she used the second floor for storage and it had blankets and space heaters upstairs.

Becky had explained that she had been at that building for about 20 years. During that time her kids grew up there. The wall was decorated with personal accomplishments and pictures. Since her daughter was a high level gymnast, she came in contact with a number of Olympians who would sign pictures, cereal boxes and other memorabilia that was all lost in the fire.

On top of that she used the facility for personal storage, so on top of the gymnastic mats and other business items, she also lost her wedding pictures, her husband’s great grandmother’s grandfather clock along with other priceless items explained Becky.

Becky said that she has gone through immense mourning over the building and personal items lost. She said she felt like it was important to get the club back up quickly. Some of the younger kids really struggled with it, thinking Becky was in the building. While one young lady exclaimed. “Miss Becky what ware we going to do about that building.”

Currently, they are meeting at the old guarding building that Stanley has generously let them use. At present it has worked out well for them other than some things they need to work out in order to make use as a long term solution.

Since it has only been a few weeks Becky says she has still been working through it, but there are days when it is hard. Especially when people get verbally frustrated that she hasn’t cleared off the lot yet. “People don’t realize at this point it is out of our hands, we are waiting for the state to let us do it.” The property needs to be inspected and then cleared for them to remove the debris.

Matt, says they have been working with the City and have kept them updated with what the state is demanding from them. At this point they are in a holding pattern says Matt continued.

The two other locations directly affected by the fire were the Rabbit Patch restaurant and Cobblestone Interiors, Clothing, Jewelry & Gifts. Both took pretty serious smoke damage.

Lori Cullins from Cobblestone Interiors, says she basically lost everything. “We were able to salvage some furniture but it will have to be refinished and restored to use again.”

Cullins said that a friend called her around 8:45 a.m. the morning of October 17th about the smoke coming out of the McClure’s gym. “Since the McClure’s are good friends of ours I immediately went to the scene. I realized our store could be affected but I thought the fire would be controlled before it reached Cobblestone. Once I saw smoke coming out of the old Allday’s store I realized we were in danger of losing our store.”

A few weeks have gone by and Cullins is still broken. “We were very sad at the loss of Cobblestone and are still grieving. The kindness and support of our community have been comforting. We recently started working with our contractor to rebuild which has brought back our excitement. We have plans to make Cobblestone even better than before. “

“Currently,” says Cullins, “We are not planning to go back into business until the new store opens. The construction has started and we hope to be back in business very soon. We will be making some exciting changes that we will reveal later. We truly believe that God will turn this unfortunate event into something great. We would like to thank everyone for their support, prayers, positive messages and kind words.”

On Cobblestone’s Facebook page, it is littered with encouraging words to Cullins. One of them came from fellow shop owner, Melissa Anne Normand-Smith from Ole Rustic Treasures. “We miss having you guys open. I look forward to the day I can help you move back in and have a beautiful grand re-opening celebration!”

The only thing that Cullins asks from the community is that when they reopen they will come out and visit them again. “We hope and pray that our wonderful customers and friends will come back and shop with us when we open. We miss them dearly.“

The Rabbit Patch

Robert Carter and his wife Jan are the owners of the Rabbit Patch. He remembers that he “was heading to Texarkana to take my mom to the hospital for day surgery but I had to stop by the restaurant on my way. As I made my way to the 4 way stop on Hwy 43 I saw the smoke in the direction of downtown. As I got closer it was apparent the smoke was indeed coming from the downtown area. I made my way to Main St and headed East it was clear to me that the smoke/ fire was coming from a building on Hiram St.”

“As I stopped at the 4 way at Main St and Williams,” Says Robert, “I looked to the car in the lane next to me and it was Mayor Travis Ransom. We both gave each other a look of disbelief as the downtown town area had just suffered a fire approx a month earlier. It wasn’t until I turned on Williams St and got to Hiram St that I realized exactly where the fire was. It was at this time the second fire truck was arriving on the scene.”

“Jan is a second-grade school teacher for AISD and was already at school when news of the fire came. She was in class when some of her co-workers came to her room and informed her that the building near our restaurant was on fire,” says Robert.

At the time recalled Robert, “We both experienced a wide range of emotions. Disbelief was probably one of the first feelings and then concern for the other business owners that suffered a greater loss then we did. As the days passed it became more apparent how much work would be required to reopen despite the fact that the fire was stopped before reaching our building. This realization invoked many emotions but mostly we are thankful no one in any of the businesses involved we’re hurt or worse.”

Two weeks later says Robert says, “Honestly we are feeling stressed. It feels much like it did when we initially opened from scratch almost 4 years ago. We wouldn’t be truthful if we said at least a couple of times we hadn’t considered not reopening simply due to feeling overwhelmed by the process. However the feedback we have gotten over the years and especially since the fire has kept us inspired and motivated to reopen. With that being said, not re-opening was never a serious consideration but rather a product of emotional overload due to having to deal with everything that is involved. We love this town and we have felt the love and support the community has shown us and we are grateful to be apart of such a truly great community.”

At this point, “Realistically,” says Robert, “we are looking at reopening sometime around the second week of December, however that potentially could be pushed back slightly depending on things that are beyond our control. Initially we wanted to get reopened before the Christmas parade December 7th, but looking at what is left to be done that is a very optimistic date. Once we get a firm date we will be updating everyone on our FB page and through the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.”

Robert & Jan are thankful for the community support, “We appreciate all the support the community has shown us. Not just as a business but personally as well. We have received messages and phone calls from many people offering thoughts and prayers and even physical help. We can not stress how much that means to us. We have even received calls from people out of town as far away as Shreveport that has visited the restaurant in the past that we don’t even personally know the offering support and prayers. To us that is confirmation that reopening is simply the only option... We will be back soon!”