Building that housed Gwinnett County’s first library could be condemned

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — The building that housed Gwinnett County’s first-ever library more than 100 years ago could be taken from the property owner through eminent domain as community members fight to save the structure.

The Norcross City Council is considering a proposal that would allow the city to use eminent domain to acquire the building on North Peachtree Street in Norcross.

The Norcross Woman’s Club opened the library at the location 103 years ago.

“It was opened with some 24,000 books by the women of Norcross,” Anne Webb, current president of the Norcross Woman’s Club said.

The building now belongs to The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation after the Woman’s Club donated it last month.

Webb says they’re working with officials at the Georgia Trust to keep the land from being taken through eminent domain.

“If they take this action condemning it, there’s nothing in the future that will protect it from a demolition,” she said.

The proposal under consideration says the building would be used for “meetings and events for the benefit and use of the public.”

Mayor Craig Newton says the hope is to keep the building in place and work to restore it.

However, Wright Mitchell, president of the Georgia Trust, says plans to sell the property to the city fell through because the sale wouldn’t include wording that designates the building as a historical landmark.

That designation would protect the structure from being torn down in the future.

“They were not willing to place a perseveration easement on the property so we couldn’t sell to them,” Mitchell said.

The Georgia Trust was in talks with a preservation-focused buyer who would convert the home into a single-family residence with a preservation easement.

“We were working with him until the city of Norcross gave us notice they plan to condemn the building,” Mitchell said.

At the meeting held Tuesday evening, the issue was tabled.

It will be discussed again at a meeting on October 7.