Photo by Jessica Vaughn

FOLEY - During the March 19 city council meeting, Board of Education member JaNay Dawson and Foley High School teacher Ronna Sanford attended to present to the council a future plan in which Foley High teachers and students could help to renovate the Hamburg building located on Rose Avenue. The Hamburg family recently donated the building to the city, which was nominated to receive a Places in Peril grant from the state of Alabama.

“Upon learning of the donation of the Hamburg building and what that could do in terms of showcasing farming history in our area, we started work on a small grant,” said Dawson. “Ronna [Sanford] and her students have been working on that, and they have one ready to go.”

Sanford presented her plan earlier in March to the Historical Commission, who all agreed that it would be a great move for the city.

“Russ Moore, our principal at Foley High School, approached me about the bicentennial school grant that was available through the state,” said Sanford. “He mentioned the building had been donated to the city by the Hamburg family and asked what could we come up with to honor that, so we all got together and came up with an idea called Hamburg and Sons AGES, and it would be Ag Education Services.”

The Hamburg and Sons building is in rough shape, but Sanford is positive with a lot of care the building can be turned into a place that honors the farmers in the area. Being over 100 years old, the building holds a long legacy for the local farming community. In its prime, the location was a potato grater, and the city has previously discussed their desire to keep the building as such in order to highlight the area’s vast farming heritage. With the state the building is in currently, it will take time and work to restore the building, which is where Sanford and the Foley High students come in.

“The purpose was to renovate it, and I was trying to figure out what our students could do on a small scale,” Sanford said. “It’s not safe enough to take students there to work, but we could work on certain elements at the school and then bring those elements to the building and then have them installed.”

Sanford suggested that the old wood in the building could be reclaimed, and the boards could be brought to the high school where the students could then work on them, cleaning the boards, removing any nails, sanding them down, staining them, and then cutting the tongue and groove joints into them. The boards could then be taken back to the Hamburg building and installed as flooring.

Once the building has been renovated and brought back to life, Sanford wants to focus on preserving the history of not only the building itself, but of the farming families who thrive in the area.

“I’m not from here, but when I was talking to the other teachers they all had stories about going to Hamburg’s, that was kind of the central location,” said Sanford. “They talked about the food, playing with the baby chicks, and getting their piece of candy from whoever was on staff. And everybody’s mentioned this huge cash register, which I think is actually still available to be put back into the building. There’s a lot of history there, and we thought it would be nice to honor the families, the farms, and so forth in this area. There’s a lot of wonderful growth taking place, but it would be nice not to lose the sense of history of what it started as in this area.”

In that sense, Sanford has come up with plans that could turn the Hamburg building into a vibrant piece of history. For the wood that is unable to be repurposed into flooring, Sanford said the students could cut the boards down and use them to create rustic picture frames to contain displays for visitors to view. She would also like to design an area for the Hamburg family that would remain on display always, which could include a mural and information on the family. There was discussion to incorporate video into the exhibit, giving visitors the chance to watch a short video on the building and area history. Sanford states they could work with Lion Pride News at the high school to put something together, and the Foley Public Library has videos that they may be able to reformat and use for the display as well.

A pamphlet would be created for guests to take with them as a souvenir and history lesson, and one of the biggest aspects of Sanford’s vision would be to create rolling displays.

“They would be on rollers so they would be moveable, so the exhibit can always be changing,” said Sanford. “You can display stuff for a period of time, and then change it out, so people don’t just come to it once and then say, ‘Oh, I’ve been there,’ you’ll get people to come back. You’ll be able to change the whole look of the building on the inside without doing any damage to the walls.”

If possible, Sanford stated the original potato grater, which is in storage, could be brought to functioning order again and placed on permanent display within the building. Visitors would be able to see it in action, while reading about its history and how it works. The railroad may also be incorporated into the history, as all of the produce from the building was once transported via train.

“As we said, we are going to make it Ag Education Services, so one of the things we’d like to do is have a little section that would be open to the public where they could get information,” said Sanford. She and her peers would work with different extension centers and universities to obtain soil test kits and prepare pamphlets telling visitors when the best time to plant a wide variety of plants would be, the acidity of soil, and so forth. Sanford would also like to see a section dedicated to the Future Farmers of America letting visitors know what’s going on in our local schools.

Sanford plans to work closely with the South Baldwin Farmers Club and the Antique Tractors Club to obtain items to go on display at various points, and the city officials suggested reaching out to the Garden Club for help with the services portion of the project. Once the building is closer to reopening, the city hopes to get donations from local farming families who would like to see their heritage preserved and shared.

“I think a lot of people want to have their history put in here,” said Sanford. “And again, it might be limited in the front on how much you can have, so that’s what would be good about being able to change it up and be able to do different things at different times.”

Sanford’s grant has gone over extremely well with the state officials, something Dawson was proud to announce.

“The state official that Ronna [Sanford] has been working with on terms of the grant has called, and was so impressed with her grant and method of her writing as well as the focus of the grant itself that he has asked to copy her grant,” said Dawson, “He’d like to use it only for the purpose of sharing it with other schools and other places around the state to see what Foley is doing and what Foley High School and the City of Foley are doing in terms of historic preservation and grant writing, as well as incorporating students and education.”

The council members were enthusiastic to Sanford’s presentation, and look forward to the improvements that will be coming to the Hamburg building in the future.