Guardhouse Museum to be featured ornament

The Guardhouse Museum at Augusta State University has been selected from among the county's historic buildings to be the symbol for the 2004 Ornament of Hope offered for sale by Easter Seals of East Georgia. The 24-carat gold-on-brass ornament will be unveiled in a ceremony scheduled for Thursday, September 16, at 4 p.m. outside the museum at the corner of the ASU campus on Walton Way and Katherine Street.

The three-room building was constructed in 1866 to guard what was then the main entrance to the Augusta Arsenal, a U.S. Army installation. After the arsenal closed in 1955, the property became home to the Junior College of Augusta, now Augusta State University. The building remained vacant until 2002 when a state grant and private donations enabled its renovation. Restored to its original appearance, the building now serves as a museum with displays about the arsenal, university, and the historic neighborhoods of Summerville and Sandhills. Of particular interest is a jail-room, or brig, in which two men, dressed in Army uniforms of the period, are shown passing the time with a game of checkers and some coffee before going on guard duty.

Large photographs and a timeline allow visitors a glimpse of different periods of the arsenal’s history, beginning with its 1826 founding and moving through military build-ups that supported two world wars. Among the displays are dozens of artifacts that have been discovered in archaeological digs on the site.

On display outside the guardhouse is a 12-lb. Napoleon cannon, manufactured in 1862 and used by federal troops during the Civil War. The cannon was installed at the guardhouse in 2004 on a 250-lb. wooden carriage that was donated to the university by the Atlanta Historical Association. Both the guardhouse and cannon are featured on the Ornament of Hope.

This is the 12th year that Easter Seals has produced an ornament featuring a historic landmark in the Augusta area. Previous ornaments have featured the Church of the Good Shepherd, the Boyhood Home of Woodrow Wilson, the Marbury Center, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, the United States Courthouse, the Partridge Inn, Ezekiel Harris House, Old Government House, Academy of Richmond County, Sacred Heart, and the Cotton Exchange.

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