Page 13 - Tattnall County

The 1926 Glennwanis Hotel, the stately brick two-story structure on the corner of Barnard and Tillman Streets in Glennville, is in the process of revitalization efforts. The goal is to restore and remodel the hotel as a multi-use facility to serve as an anchor for the downtown while still keeping the historical integrity of the hotel intact.

The Glennwanis Hotel sits on the site of the former Hughes Hotel, which was built around 1905 by Dr. Joseph M. Hughes. The impressive two-story inn was constructed from the principal building material of that time - heart of Georgia pine. But this sturdy and durable component could have contributed to the old hotel’s demise. The pitch-soaked lumber was easily ignited and was highly combustible. After only 15 years of service to the traveling public of that day, the structure went up in smoke. It burned circa 1920 on Christmas Eve night. Fire is thought to have been started by freworks, a Roman Candle, which was then legal and by custom shot off at Christmastime.

The beginning of the Glennwanis Hotel is documented in a July 31, 1925, edition of The Glennville Sentinel . Mention was made that plans were underway for the construction of a $35,000 tourist hotel for Glennville on the corner lot where the old J.M. Hughes Hotel was located. The new structure, the plans related, was to have 60 rooms “equipped very modernly” for the tourists passing through Glennville to Florida as well as to take care of the local trade who enjoyed the fshing of the area.

In February of 1926, the Kiwanis Club continued the surge to build the hotel, and by March of 1926, the Glennville Hotel Company was organized with the stockholders electing the frst slate of directors that read like a “Who’s Who” in Glennville in the 1920s: Dr. S.O. Edwards, President; S.J. Kicklighter, Vice-President; J.M. Hughes, a doctor; L. Roy Nelson and J.B. Seckinger, retailers; and Arnie Strickland and Lint Jones, businessmen/fnanciers. Although the original contract to build the hotel was let to Simmons Company in Augusta, Georgia, this company asked to be relieved. Instead the Glennville contracting frm of Bacon and Rolls was awarded their bid of $31,500. It was announced that the hotel had been leased to Dr. and Mrs. J.M. Hughes.

By November of 1926, without a paved street or a paved sidewalk in town, a dignifed brick-masonry, two-story hotel was erected at the corner of Barnard and Tillman Streets. The 40-room structure contained arched doorways and windows on the frst foor and covered porches on the west and east ends. Whereas most small town hotels of that day used kerosene lamps for lighting, the new hotel in Glennville boasted electric lights, steam heat, and running hot and cold water in all guest rooms, “most of