History

A South Side Story

Every corner of Downtown LaGrange is bursting with history. But, the history of the corner south of the Square at what is now Lafayette Square and Bull Street, the one occupied by Lafayette Plaza, is especially interesting.

In October of 1862, the country was embroiled in the Civil War and Mary Curtright had not seen her husband in months. Writing to her from Harrodsburg, Kentucky, Captain John Cornelius “Jack” Curtright explained that a visit home to LaGrange would be a “violation of what I consider best for my company & country.” He was the commander of Company E of the 41st Georgia Regiment, a unit that styled themselves as the “Troup Light Guards.” The regiment was serving in Kentucky under the leadership of Confederate General Braxton Bragg seeking to bring the state into the fold of the Confederacy. At the conclusion of his letter, he implores his wife to settle his business’ accounts “right away. The fall is now here & I suppose the farmers will have cotton. He [presumably Curtright’s bookkeeper] must take it in settlement.”

Prior to the war, Capt. Curtright operated his mercantile on the corner of Court Square and Bull Street. An 1860 advertisement describes him as a Wholesale and Retail Grocer and shows him selling corn, bacon, tobacco, flour, coffee, and, oddly, nails and “a large lot of Iron and Plow steel.” However, two ads appearing in the October 17, 1862 edition of the LaGrange Reporter reveal the dire straits Curtright and many other local businessmen were in: “Desiring to close up my business…immediately, I propose to take in payment of debts due to me, COTTON, CORN, WHEAT &C., at the Very Highest Market Prices…CONFEDERATE BONDS or TREASURY NOTES, better than money with me.” Sadly, just a few days after this ad’s appearance, Curtright’s wife and three small children would be informed that he had been killed in Kentucky.

As the captain of the Troup Light Guards, Curtright led his men into battle on October 8th near a small creek near the crossroads settlement of Perryville. Ten men from his regiment lost their lives in the fierce battle that day. According to family tradition, his enslaved manservant, Berry, found the body and buried it on the battlefield marking it with a cedar board.

Years later, one of Curtright’s daughters married a Methodist minister, Warren Candler, who would eventually become a noted bishop in the church. In 1919, after giving a speech in Lexington, Kentucky, Candler mentioned that his father-in-law was buried somewhere near Perryville. An older gentleman happened to recall the burial spot of a Confederate officer, and the remains were recovered and miraculously identified as those of Capt. Curtright. The remains were brought to LaGrange where they were buried next to his wife in Hill View Cemetery following a service conducted by Bishop Candler.

What became of the building that Curtright occupied is unknown, though there is a possibility it was burned by Union Colonel Oscar LaGrange who marched through town in mid-April of 1865. This is the same unit that legend holds was challenged by the Nancy Harts as they marched into town. While they promised to not destroy any of the homes and churches here, they did destroy the depot, several mills, and other parts of downtown.

A few years after the war, Anderson D. Abraham (pronounced “Abram”), who commanded Company F of the 41st Regiment from Meriwether County alongside Curtright’s Company E, opened his own mercantile with partners Dr. Hezekiah Wimbish and Virgil L. Hopson on the north side of the square. In 1871 or 1872, Abraham decided to open the LaGrange Bank and Trust Company adjacent to his store on the northeast portion of the square. He had a fine building constructed for it and hired some of the best craftsmen in the area to appoint it. The LaGrange Reporter notes that the vault was constructed using granite from Stone Mountain. Abraham was engaged in running the bank for several decades until his death in 1895.

In 1906, the bank commenced construction on a grand bank building at the corner of Bull Street and Court Square. The building was built to provide commercial, office, and living space in addition to the bank. Just like their original building, the new bank was outfitted with a state-of-the-art vault, one so modern that it commanded a full-page description in the LaGrange Reporter. The new bank opened the second week of November with King Hardware sharing the first floor, Bedford Heard’s grocery store Capt. Jack Curtright

A LaGrange Fire Department ladder truck tests its ladder on the LaGrange Banking & Trust Building

Grave of Capt. Curtright in Hill View Cemetery

The old bank building goes up in flames, May 8, 1994

on the basement level off Bull Street, a ladies’ millinery shop on the second floor as well as several law and medical offices. In addition to office space, the second and third floors offered living space for “our bachelar [sic] friends who happen to be homeless.”

For several decades, the building’s many offices were occupied by a revolving cast of businessmen, attorneys, physicians, and insurance salesmen. Following the great stock market crash of 1929, the LaGrange Banking and Trust Company began to show signs of weakness and in April of 1931, the bank was closed by the state and put into receivership. Thus, it joined in the long line of banks that closed during this period due to financial strain. Apparently, the bank remained in receivership throughout the remainder of the 1930s. On November 5, 1936, the bank building witnessed the burning of the magnificent domed 1904 courthouse just across the street in court square leaving just a brick shell. After the ruins were demolished, the square became a greenspace. In 1941, Arthur E. Mallory, Sr. reorganized the bank as LaGrange Bank and Trust Company. Under Arthur E. Mallory, Jr. in 1968, the lovely bank’s appearance was altered with the addition of aluminum strips being applied to its façade.

This bank was renamed in 1980 to Commercial Bank & Trust and the bank’s headquarters moved from its original location on the square to a new building on North Greenwood, across from St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. The empty building was later occupied by a linens business before Furniture Liquidators opened in 1992. While the 1968 attempts to “modernize” the building with aluminum strips did little to improve the beauty of the building, few complaints were heard until Furniture Liquidators installed a large inflatable pink sofa on the roof of this historic structure as an advertising ploy. A volley of grumblings from local residents did nothing to resolve the situation.

The courthouse fire in 1936 would serve as a prelude to another tremendous fire on the square, this time consuming the nearly 90-yearold building. Around 9 o’clock on the evening of Sunday, May 8, 1994, a police officer reported a fire on the first floor of the Furniture Liquidators building. Over the next few hours, the blaze consumed the entire building and much of the neighboring structure, which was occupied by Vision World and Unforgettably Yours, a ladies’ specialty shop. Flames, some estimated at reaching a height of 250-feet shot into the air illuminating the square and visible from I-85, totally destroyed the building leaving only smoldering brick ruins by the next morning. The LaGrange Fire Department dumped an estimated 4,200 gallons of water per minute, using an estimated 1.5 million gallons total to control it. Investigators were never able to pinpoint the cause of the fire.

Having lost one of the anchor buildings on the square, local leaders came together to fix the gap. A plaza was proposed for the site to provide an attractive space adjacent to the Chamber of Commerce. The plaza was opened in May of 1997 and was described in the LaGrange Daily News

LaGrange Banking & Trust Building, 1925 Space once occupied by the old bank building is now filled with Lafayette Plaza

Drawing of the LaGrange Banking & Trust Building

New safe installed in the LaGrange Banking & Trust Building, 1906

The bank name was once painted on the east side of the building

as “making something glorious” from the devastating scar left by the fire. This move has continued a thread of history that has witnessed the tragedies of war, economic downturn, and ultimately fire all overcome by triumphs that reflect the spirit of the citizens of LaGrange and Troup County.