Page 18 - Tattnall County

Old Southland Courts,” said Charlotte, prior to her purchase of the hotel. Ola Campion, formerly Trapnell, came to the Glennwanis Hotel to manage it in 1962-63, for the third time. In 1963, John M. Smith bought the hotel and owned it until 1980. John Smith was the husband of Helen Ray Smith, who died at age 94 on October 13, 2009. He turned it over to Zelma Keels in April of 1980.

In January of 1981, the Rev. and Mrs. Carl Milton purchased the hotel, and Mrs. Milton operated her real estate offce of Advance Realty in the hotel as well as apartments. The Glennville Sentinel also had their offce in the hotel for a few years with their location in the former dining room and kitchen. In 1988, Major General (Ret.) Gene Anderson and his wife, Gloria, bought the property. In 1992, Stan Ragsdale purchased the Glennwanis Hotel. His real estate business, Assets Unlimited, was housed in the hotel in

addition to ten effciency apartments rented on a weekly basis. He also operated a fea market on a part of the frst foor.

A new era began for the Glennwanis Hotel in March of 2001 with the purchase of the structure from Stan Ragsdale by the Glennville Downtown Development Authority, an entity of the City of Glennville. The purchase price was $70,000. The Department of Community Affairs approved the usage of Revolving Loan Funds (RLF) of approximately $60,000 to be placed toward the purchase price. The purpose for the purchase of the hotel was to renovate and modernize the 1926-built structure for multi-purpose use to help stimulate downtown revitalization.

One of the frst priorities after purchase of the Glennwanis Hotel was the replacement of the roof at an approximate cost of $29,000, with $10,000 of these funds coming from the

ABOVE The Friends of Glennwanis Hotel meet regularly with a mission to restore the hotel and establish it as a cornerstone of downtown development. So far the group has raised enough money to begin some small restoration projects on the hotel.