The History of Lakewood: The Legacy Dies
The Lakewood Fairgrounds Antique Mall is not a mall at all. It is more than a place that sits on 117-acres of long-lost Creek Indian land. It was established in 1916 as home of the Southeastern Fair. Its seven Spanish colonial livestock exhibition halls were home to over 15,000 antique dealers until the weekend of October 13-15, 2006 when it closed down for good. Atlantans can recall its prior life as a circus with a huge carousel that remained until 1967. Children visited often, whether for the fair in the spring and summer months or in the winter when one of the buildings was converted into a southern anomaly: an ice skating rink.
Now, after 20 years, the Lakewood Fairgrounds Antique Mall is no more. For 20 years on the second weekend of every month, over 12,00 people found something just for themselves, for five cents or five thousand dollars. If you wanted it, it was there. It was originally taken on as a 50 year lease from the City of Atlanta by Ed Spivia, who grew it into an Atlanta icon.
The lease has returned to the city, which will either place the seven barns on the Historic Register, put it up for developers to build a loft-style community, or bulldoze it for a massive development. The most recent news (January 2007) is it may become the new site for the Atlanta Zoo. I wonder if they'll keep the buildings? In an article from the Atlanta Journal/Constitution (2006), Spivia said that he gave up the lease because he wants to use his time to spend with his grandchildren. Not sure where he'll find the time to put into the new antique market that he leased shortly before letting the Lakewood lease expire, 20 miles outside of Atlanta in an area known for its wealth and new residential construction.
I guess time will tell. It always does. Sometimes it's just not the news we wanted to hear.
(Some information taken from W. Sarginson, 10/10/06 WXIA-TV-Atlanta and googlenews.)
Someone's Daugher
Did you ever wonder about these - old photographs of dated faces for sale? If it's for the frame, why didn't the seller just take the photo out, or put in a nice landscape from a magazine? The frame isn't all that and can surely be purchased at a CVS or Walgreens for under 5 bucks. I wonder how I would feel if I were to know that years from now, my photograph would wind up on a flea market table for hundreds of passersbyers to look at each day thousands of miles from my home, being sold for $5.00, then taken to some stranger's home, my photo thrown into their trash can. Or would it be worse to be displayed like an artifact because you looked 'old' or 'authentic'and not because they knew you? What if three generations forward, someone with parts of your DNA happened by you without knowing it? It makes me wonder... what was her name, what was her life like, who did she love and who loved her? How did she get here and did she ever think this would be her, in this photograph? On some stranger's photo gallery? Being discussed.....
One of These Things Is Not Like The Other..
