To find out more about how students, residents, and visitors experience Athens, reporters from JOUR 3190 conducted a survey of downtown visitors on a recent sunny afternoon. Twelve interviewees mentioned their favorite eccentric hangouts, secret hideaways, Athens superstitions, and the city’s history of hauntings.
Some people discussed favorite spots around Athens that are more under the radar. Justin Garner, a first-year horticulture major at the University of Georgia, enjoys going to the abandoned denim factory north of town. Not many people have heard of it, he said. “It’s good if you want to blow off steam and just kind of be angry at the world.”
Third-year marketing student Kalai Willis said she enjoys the “secret waterfall on Macon highway.” If you’re ever trying to find it, it’s on the right hand side of the highway just before Athens Ridge, she said.
Several people preferred spots closer to the heart of Athens, such as local restaurants. Andrew Westbrook, 24, recently moved to the city after living in Lima, Ohio, enjoys Transmetropolitan when he goes out to eat.
Briana Rice, 23, recently graduated from UGA and describes her favorite food spots as being “pretty normal.” She likes to spend time at Rook and Pawn, Rooftop Bar, and Walker’s Coffee Shop, specifically “the back part…like underneath Blue Sky.”
In addition to discussing favorite physical locations in Athens, the interviewees also mentioned some of their favorite superstitions and historical details.
The most commonly mentioned superstition was regarding the Arch, and that walking under it before graduation is bad luck.
However, some answers reflected stories that pointed towards Athens’s history of supposed hauntings. Ken Whittington, 52, of Anderson, South Carolina, has worked for UGA Food Services for several years. He said that he knows the building behind Holmes-Hunter Academic Building on North Campus is haunted. “Students studying late at night hear things” that they can’t explain, he said.
Rice shared the story of the haunted building on campus called Joseph E. Brown Hall, which used to be a dorm but now serves as an academic facility. She said that before students were mandated to leave for break, one stayed behind in the dorm during the holiday season and committed suicide. The body was not found until the end of the break, and they walled the whole room up, she said. “If you go there now, it’s still walled up, but there is supposedly a picture on the wall to make it look like there’s a doorway there,” said Rice, who added that she has not ventured upstairs to see for herself.
The Red & Black published an article elaborating on the Joseph E. Brown Hall haunting and history, as well as a few other Athens myths and legends. It can be found here:
http://www.redandblack.com/news/mythbusters-uga/article_453329d5-4e0f-579f-ab49-3fa9a2e1fa5c.html
Other stories of superstitions reflected a more whimsical side to Athens. Garner said that, “If you climb all the magnolia trees on campus, you’re blessed with good luck.” He also said that he has climbed several of the trees himself, but “not nearly all of them.”
Liz Habersham, a first-year advertising and English major from Savannah, Georgia, described a “secret” checklist of three different things to do around campus before graduating from UGA. The three activities include running the bases at Foley Field, climbing to the top of the Stegeman Coliseum, and breaking into Sanford Stadium after hours. “It’s called the trifecta,” she said.
