Storms damage Finster's Paradise Gardens

CLEANING DAYVolunteers are planning a cleanup day at Paradise Gardens on Nov. 13 from 10:30 to 4 p.m.

Volunteers at Howard Finster's Paradise Gardens near Summerville, Ga., are removing fallen trees and repairing a roof at the late folk artist's home after storms that ripped through the area last week.

Tommy Littleton, who runs the nonprofit organization that operates the galleries at Finster's former home, said trees fell on one building that served as the entrance in the 1980s.

"There were about five trees laying on it. It looked really bad," he said.

The building had a few holes punched in the roof and branches came close to the iconic Folk Art Chapel, but the rest of the property escaped harm, Littleton said.

"Thankfully no major damage, considering how close it was -- I mean mere feet," he said. "We dodged a bullet."

Finster, a bicycle repairman turned evangelist and internationally acclaimed artist, spent much of his life constructing, sculpting, painting and decorating his four-acre lot just north of Summerville, Ga. When he died in 2001, his family took over the gardens before selling the site to a nonprofit group in 2005. Chattooga County plans to buy the site, which volunteers hope will make it easier to obtain grants to reclaim the gardens from weeds, mildew and weather.

But first, they've got to reclaim it from the tree limbs.

"The biggest thing was that not much damage occurred," said Jordan Poole, field services manager with the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, which has worked with the Gardens since naming it to its "Places in Peril" list last year.

Poole said the fallen trees may have been a "blessing in disguise" because some of the downed trees' roots had been causing cracks in the mosaic sidewalks Finster had routed around the property. He said it's important to clear the site because a photographer is coming later this month to take pictures for the Gardens' National Register of Historic Places application.

Chattooga County Commissioner Jason Winters said a barn was demolished about 100 yards from the chapel and about 20 nearby homes were damaged.

"I'm surprised they didn't have a lot more damage," Winters said. "How [the chapel] didn't get damaged I don't know."

Contact staff writer Andy Johns at ajohns@timesfreepress.com or call 423-757-6324.

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