Memories of a landmark
By KATHLEEN MCKEVITT

Established in 1945, the old Butts Antique building is now gone.

Anyone driving along the road south of Blairsville on 19/129 has noticed that a longtime landmark, most recently known as the Butts Antique store, is gone. Mr. Henry Butts and his antiques have moved to a new location on Rogers Street behind the Book Nook, but he spent that last seven years in an early 1940s building "that never did have heat in it," according to one of the owners.

The building was constructed in 1945 and used for a warehouse by Frank Colwell, and his friend Roy Lorten. Local farmers would bring the products of their fields to the warehouse, and Colwell and Lorten would truck it to the Farmer's Market in Atlanta where they would sell it.

Frank Colwell retired in 1980 and the building was then sold to Bill Hunter. Hunter turned it into the "House of Oak" selling all oak furniture until 1985. Hunter sold to Eddy Graham who continued to run it as House of Oak until 1999, and then Mr. Butts rented the building from 1999 until early this year.

The bulldozers moved in this week. A close look reveals a piece of an old Purina sign on the left side of the building from the warehouse days.

The building is nearly demolished and cleared, and the Colwell building, once a landmark, is gone and the property has returned to its origins. Mrs. Wayne Colwell, daughter-in-law of the builder, Frank Colwell, reports that the property is owned by the Colwell family and there are no plans to develop it.