Chris Cannon posted on July 08, 2010 10:18
From the Rome News-Tribune
CAVE SPRING — With thousands of people visiting the small town of Cave Spring for the busy Fourth of July weekend, the newly-opened Cave Spring Welcome Center and Museum got quite a bit of attention from tourists.
“The welcome center has information about various locations in Cave Spring,” said Rip Montgomery, promotions chairman of the Cave Spring Downtown Development Authority. “It’s partly a museum that contains the history of the town, information about the Georgia School for the Deaf, a re-make of a classroom in the historical Fairview and E.S. Brown African-American schools, and we are hoping to begin some walking tours of the town.”
The welcome center, which had its grand opening last month, is located in the historic Asbury House.
The owners of the house, Doc and Ginny Kibler, leased the house to the DDA and various historic groups, which then restored the house and opened it to the public as a welcome center and museum.
“Progress in the center is going very good, the interest has been extremely high,” said Montgomery. “We feel like it’s a great thing for Cave Spring. It’s something we’ve been wanting to do for over 20 years. We are just very happy and it’s very informative.”
According to Montgomery, the welcome center is not completely finished but is expected to be done in about three months.
“I think it’s going to bring a lot of people to town, especially those who are interested in history, but it is a work in progress,” he said.
Volunteers from Cave Spring are working at the welcome center. Volunteer Teresa Wood said she wants to help because she loves Cave Spring.
“Turning the house into a welcome center was a wonderful idea and I’m really glad they were able to go forward with it and make the project a reality,” she said.