In the early morning hours on Friday, January 26, Stonewall lost a physical piece of its history as one of the gym walls officially collapsed.
The old gym was a staple in the community and was enjoyed for years before the town had to shut it down due to deterioration and lack of use.
“We used to have people go there and have birthday parties and roller skate and stuff,” recalled Mayor Jerry Rich. “In the summer, we couldn’t furnish air conditioning in it, and it was too hot in there for people to really use. In the winter months, we had gas heaters in it. People would go during the winter months to play basketball and have parties and all. We didn’t charge anybody for that. It was just like a community center. Then, people just quit coming. We shut it down.”
Residents have noticed the deterioration of the building over the years, but without a grant, it was impossible for the city to be able to do anything to correct the issue. With the age of the building, insurance companies wouldn’t cover it, and the town simply doesn’t have enough revenue to be able to handle the large cost the building would be without grant assistance.
“Since the 70s, the gym has probably been worked on about three or four times, new roofs and everything,” explained Rich. “It was so deteriorated that insurance wouldn’t insure it.”
As soon as he noticed the roof of the building start sagging months ago, he set to work to try and attain a grant to save the building. With the gym being listed on the historic registry, he had hoped that he could acquire a historical grant for reparations, but the process to obtain a grant is difficult and takes time.
“I started working on a grant about six months ago when we noticed the roof. The gym was on the historical register, so I went through East Mississippi Planning with Ms. Jennifer Buford to see if we could get a historical grant since it was on the historical registry,” continued Rich. “I had just called Thursday to ask her about it, and she said the Historical Society in Jackson would probably give a $50,000 - $100,000 grant. We were looking at $300,000 to half a million to redo that building. I’ve had architects and engineers in there looking at it. Even the architect said that if I could get a grant, I would need about five or six of them because it would cost a lot. It’s not easy getting grants, though. I’ve tried to get the parking lot in front of town hall repaved and have been denied two years in a row. You just have so many small towns in Mississippi going after all these grants. When I talked to Jennifer about grants for the gym, she said it would be probably be October of this year before they let out grants again, and they don’t give out that big of a grant.”
Now that the wall has collapsed, the building is beyond the point of repair. Rich worked diligently Friday morning after the discovery was made to secure the building area so that no one would be injured and has been making contact with other elected officials to see what can be done to take care of the building now.
“It fell in Friday morning, and the mayor called asking for assistance from the county in getting it torn down and moved,” stated Clarke County Board of Supervisor President Darrick Marshall. “We’re going to talk about it at the next board meeting to see what assistance we can give them.”
The mayor also intends to call a special meeting with the Stonewall Board of Aldermen so that they can determine what they would like the next steps to be and how to handle the situation.
While Stonewall residents are shocked and disheartened at the sight of the collapsed gym, some have been trying to keep up with the progress being made and plans for the building over the past few months.
“The collapse of the gym makes me very sad, as I'm sure it does anyone who grew up or has any affiliation with Stonewall. I love this town as if it was a physical person, and I hate to see what it is becoming. I know this collapse would have my daddy in tears, just as seeing the mill close did. That said, it's done, and now all we can really focus on will be cleanup,” proclaimed Tara Hooven. “I think in this situation it would be really easy to point fingers and blame. I've been prone to do it as well, but the fact is that for the gym to be in this state, it has been declining for years. It is absolutely not fair to only point the finger at people currently holding a position with the town and try to lay the blame at their feet. They are there because, just like so many of us, they love Stonewall. I've had conversations with a few of them over the last several weeks, and they had been trying to get grants. Unfortunately, the ones that were located required the town to match the amount of money that came with the grant, and it wasn't available. They were still looking for funds when the original roof cave-in happened.”
The collapse has brought up the issue that the community has to be involved as well in order to make sure tragedies such as the loss of the gym won’t happen. It takes more than a few men and women in suits to get things done.
“The fact is that the town, the board, the mayor, etc. cannot do everything by themselves. We're all rather prone to get upset when things like this happen, but when we're asked to be involved, we're too busy or have other priorities. If we want to prevent things like this from happening in the future, and the town from continuing to decline, we all have to be involved,” added Hooven, “be that fundraisers, town cleanup days, going to board meetings to voice your concerns, running for office or whatever. They can't do it all alone, and if we love this town so much, as I know many do, we have to be willing to step up and help. We cannot only rely on those in office to carry the weight of what needs to be done on their shoulders. Actions speak louder than words. It's time we stood with them to turn the town around, instead of just telling them what they need to do.”
Although the town still has to decide what they will need to do with that location now that the gym will need to be completely demolished and removed, the mayor does still want to be able to acknowledge the historical location and the many great memories it contains for multiple people in the county.
“It’s part of people’s history, and it’s gone,” declared Rich. “People will still drive out and say that it used to be right there. Maybe I could get the state to come in and put a historical marker out there.”
The loss of the gym isn’t what anyone wanted, but the Town of Stonewall is doing everything it can to make the best of a bad situation. They fully intend to continue to try and serve the community to the best of their ability and do what they can to prevent anything like this from happening again.
