By Joan Hetzler
Correspondent
LaFAYETTE, Ga. - Organizers hope the proceeds from a fund-raiser here will pay for a brick-and-granite sign to replace a plywood one at Georgia's oldest remaining brick schoolhouse.
The historic Chattooga Academy building downtown, completed in 1836, was Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg's headquarters as he prepared for the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, Main Street and economic development director Catherine Edgemon said.
"It was used as a school into the 1920s, then for women's clubs, and then for city offices, but was closed to the public during downstairs renovations until last year," she said.
On Sept. 14 the Chattooga Academy Advisory Board will sponsor a fundraiser at the LaFayette Pizza Hut at 405 N. Main St. The proceeds will pay for labor and materials to build a new sign at the historic academy to replace the current temporary plywood one.
Those wishing to help can print out or pick up a fundraiser ticket and give it to the cashier when making a purchase at the store that day. Tickets can be printed out online from http://www.cityoflafayettega.org/ or picked up at City Hall, Chattooga Academy or the LaFayette-Walker County Library. If sales are greater than $499, the restaurant will donate 20 percent of the proceeds, and if under that it will donate 10 percent, officials said.
Ms. Edgemon said she hopes to defray some of the costs by finding donations of skilled labor.
"It's a labor-intensive kind of project, so if we can find someone to donate their labor it will be considerably cheaper," she said.
The sign is part of a general renewal of the Chattooga Academy building.
"The bottom floor is being established as a schoolhouse museum," Ms. Edgemon said. "We've got some items in there. We're working now to get a temporary exhibit set up."
The building's top floor is being used by the Main Street and Economic Development Department. In addition, the Downtown Development Authority Historic Preservation Commission and the Main Street Committees meet at the building.
Joan Hetzler is based in Flintstone, Ga. E-mail her at jhwrites@gmail.com