Bright Ideas - July 11, 2016

‘Imperiled’ Historic Lodge Gets a New Lease on Life

---

Problem: What to do with a decaying, 164-year-old historic building — one of the few remnants of when Crawford, Ala. was the Russell County seat.

Solution: Rally local support, donated services and county resources to restore the building as a community center with a park.

---

 

The Tuckabatchee Masonic Lodge No. 96 was one of Alabama’s historic “places in peril.”

“Intervention is desperately needed to save this structure,” Alabama Heritage magazine wrote of the building in 2012. Built in 1848, it was covered in vines and showing signs of decay.

Fortunately for the building, 2012 was also the year Chance Corbett was elected to the Russell County Commission. He’s been widely hailed in the community as the driving force behind the restoration. His vision was that an aging pre-Civil War building could become a center for community events next to a new county park.

That “vision” is now Crawford Park at The Historic Tuckabatchee Masonic Lodge, and it’s rarely seen an idle weekend since opened in May 2015. It wasn’t that long ago, Corbett said, that residents would sometimes call the county “to complain about it being a nuisance.”

The project is a best-in-class winner of a 2016 NACo Achievement Award for arts and historic preservation.

“This is the only thing I’ve ever done in my life that I haven’t had any negative comments on,” Corbett said. “This has been the best project. The public has just completely embraced it.”

But this was no one-man job, and he’s quick to share credit with the scores of community volunteers and fellow commissioners.

The renovation has turned the building into a revenue-producing asset for the county: Rentals, handled through the County Commission office, are $125 per event, and all rental income “goes right back into the project,” he said. The county has a long-term lease with the building’s owner, who, to date, has declined to accept any payment.

Upstairs, the second floor has been turned into a museum displaying freemasonry artifacts from the building’s past.

The park officially opened in January 2016 and provides something members of the Crawford community never had before — a park with a playground that’s close to home. Before, “If you got in the car and drove, the nearest park you would come to is 15 to 20 miles away,” Corbett explained.

Russell County contributed $15,000 to get the renovation going and $85,000 towards equipment for the playground. Beyond that, grants, donations and community sweat equity got the job done, he added.

A local sod company provided the grass for landscaping. A playground equipment company contributed towards the purchase of swings, slides and such. New trees came courtesy of an Alabama Power Foundation “Good Roots” grant. An electrical supply company donated and installed wiring. And additional funding came from the state and the Alabama Historic Commission.

Corbett said more $20,000 was raised from the sale of the commemorative brick pavers — many of which he installed — that now line the walkway to the building’s entrance. And there’s room for more.

“Being an old masonic lodge, a lot of masons call me out of the blue and say, ‘I want to put a brick down for my dad or my granddad who used to go there.’ I’ve had masonic lodges all over the state of Alabama call and want to put a brick down.”

More recently, Corbett has been helping to pour concrete to anchor park benches that will be installed, but his contributions haven’t all been manual labor. He also keeps the park’s Facebook page up to date and has taken “every photograph” of the playground posted there.

Some residents have shared their thoughts about the project on the social media site. “I hope you are going [to NACo’s Annual Conference] to receive this award, Chance,” wrote Barbara Long — “you being the one who could imagine what this vine-covered old building could become and worked so hard to achieve this beautiful park. Great work.”

Barring the unexpected, Corbett says he plans to be there.

Watch the dedication

>