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BY CYNTHIA MAUDE, STAFF WRITER Friday, March 30, 2007 9:18 AM CDT The Mineral Bluff Depot, built in 1887, has been entered into the National Register of Historic Places, making it the fourth historic building in Fannin County to be so designated.
The news that the U. S. Department of Interior had approved the depot’s historic designation came the middle of this month, after being in the works for two years, said John Nichols, who with Elma Ettman, did the application on behalf of the Fannin County Board of Commissioners.
The brick depot was built by the Marietta and North Georgia Railroad, a line that has since been abandoned. It is the only surviving Marietta and North Georgia Railroad depot in Georgia. Other existing depots along the line, like Blue Ridge, Ellijay, Jasper and Tate, were built later by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.
The Mineral Bluff Depot was deemed worthy of a place on the National Register because of the historical significance of its construction and its commercial and social value to the community, said Nichols.
“At 120 years old, the Mineral Bluff Depot is the oldest public building and one of the oldest structures in Fannin County,” Nichols said. It joins three buildings in downtown Blue Ridge already on the National Register of Historic Places - the old Fannin County Courthouse, now home to the Blue Ridge Mountains Arts Association, the Baugh House at 411 W. Main St., and the Blue Ridge Depot at 241 Depot St.
The Mineral Bluff Depot was built by Nichols’ great-grandfather, Robert Lee Baugh, and his father, John W. Baugh, originally a brick mason, who went on to manufacture Baugh brick.
John W. Baugh also built the Baugh House, the old Fannin County Tobacco Co. and the smelters and furnaces at the copper mining operation in Ducktown, Nichols said.
The Mineral Bluff Depot features walls that are three to four bricks thick, windows framed by brick arches, and no steel framing, he said.
“For almost 75 years, the Mineral Bluff Depot had passenger train service, and for 85 years, it had a freight agent. Freight was shipped here until 1990. The last freight they shipped was slate rock for Zyrian Stone Co. of Miami,” Nichols said.
The renovation of the Mineral Bluff Depot, which has been under way for the past several years, is “95 percent through,” he said. The hope is to turn the building - which is owned by the state of Georgia and leased to the Fannin County Commissioners - over to the Tri-State Model Railroad Association within the next 30 to 90 days, Nichols said.
A bronze plaque calling attention to the fact that the Mineral Bluff Depot is on the National Register of Historic Places will be placed on the outside of the building, he said.