A taste of possibly things to come

Published 12:15 am Saturday, October 1, 2016

ACWORTH — From the warm collard greens dip and fried green beans they had for appetizers to the red velvet cake and banana pudding they had for desserts, Dalton officials who visited Gabriel’s at the Old Mill in Acworth Wednesday night declared themselves very impressed with the food.

“This is all very good,” said Carl Campbell, executive director of the Dalton-Whitfield Joint Development Authority.

Campbell, Mayor Dennis Mock, City Council member Gary Crews, city Finance Director Cindy Jackson, Downtown Dalton Development Authority Director Garrett Teems and Kathryn Sellers, a board member of the Dalton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, traveled to Acworth to dine at the restaurant and to meet with Acworth Mayor Tommy Allegood, Gabriel’s owner Johnnie Gabriel and the management of Jeremiah Consulting.

Jeremiah renovates historic properties and converts them into “third places,” which refers to places separate from home or work such as cafes, restaurants and parks. Some of its developments include Gabriel’s, which is located in a mill built around 1870, and The Nest Kennesaw, a barbecue and craft beer restaurant built from two historic houses in downtown Kennesaw.

Jeremiah has expressed an interest in the historic train depot in Dalton that once housed the Dalton Depot and Trackside Tavern.

“I see a lot of potential there,” said Dale Hughes, a partner in Jeremiah.

The visit to Acworth was aimed at showing Dalton officials an example of what Jeremiah has done and what it could do at the depot in Dalton.

Hughes noted that he already has several connections to Dalton and to the depot. He serves as president of the Kennesaw Museum Foundation, which supports the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History. The museum houses the General, the locomotive stolen by Union spies which passed through Dalton during the Great Locomotive Chase. And one of its developments is called Fullers Chase, after William Allen Fuller, the General’s conductor who famously chased after it on a handcart after it was stolen.

“Given our connections, I’m really excited about the possibility of working on the depot,” Hughes said.

Hughes said he’d like to open up the depot, allowing more view of the outside and creating more light in the building.

“We took him over to the old freight depot (in Dalton) to show him what we’d done there, and he said that was very much like what he’d like to do at the depot,” Mock said.

The city, which owns the depot, closed the building in November 2015, citing conditions that “posed potential health hazards to the public,” including mold.

Hughes and his wife Cindy talked about the various renovations they have done to historic buildings, including the mill.

The mill was built by John Cowan, one of four Georgians credited with founding the city of Helena, Mont. After making a fortune with a Montana gold mine, Cowan returned home to Acworth and built a flour mill.

After the meeting, Mock said he hopes the city can strike a deal with Jeremiah.

“The next step is seeing if we can make the numbers work,” said Mock.

City officials have said they are looking for the next tenant to fund the needed repairs to the depot.

Hughes said his “gut feeling” is that would cost $600,000 to $1 million.

“He (Hughes) told us that he can’t see putting that much money into a building he doesn’t own and then leasing it,” Mock said. “But he wants to form some sort of partnership with us. I think we are all interested in that.”

Mock has said he’d like for Dalton residents to go to Acworth and dine at Gabriel’s and tell city officials what they think.