Wednesday, March 7, 2001

I am writing to inform you of my class's disappointment about what has happened to the Dorsey House on Long Avenue.

As a class project, my classmates have been researching thoroughly on many historical houses in the city of Fayetteville, and have presented information about them to each other. Many of us enjoyed learning the history of these houses and are greatly disappointed in the decision of the county to destroy the house.

I believe that history cannot be replaced, and it disturbs me that one of our precious houses has been leveled. I just wanted to notify you that this decision has extremely affected my classmates and me.

Justin Merrick

Recently in our class we researched about the architecture of some of the older houses in Fayetteville. One of my classmates did the Dorsey House. This house didn't seem to be of much use to anyone, but someone was interested in the house and said they would be able to move the house to another location so it would be possible for the county to build its jail. I understand that they did not own the house and were only in the talking process of buying it.

It was definitely the county's right to take the house because you had set a date to demolish it. The only thing is that it's part of Fayetteville's history and it's a shame that it has been taken away.

Keenan Phillips

I am writing to you to inform you of what has occurred over the last month or so. My classmates and I have been researching some of the historic buildings of Fayetteville. I must say that this has been an outstanding class project and extremely educational.

The other day, our teacher, Mrs. Hannon, notified us of some terrible news. The Dorsey house on Long Avenue, one of the houses we researched, had been leveled. This disappointed our class and our teacher greatly.

I'm not here to make anyone feel guilty but to just let everyone be aware. I believe that it was a poor decision to tear down the house because to some it was just an old rickety shack but to others, such as my classmates and I, it was a valuable piece of Fayetteville history.

I know that now there is nothing that I or anyone else can do to get that house back but I just want to at least try to prevent this from ever happening again.

Heather Barczynski

I heard that the Dorsey house was razed. I didn't really know what to think, because I didn't know if I cared or not. Normally I would not care, but because of our gifted reading class and our study of historic houses, I found I care a little.

My class and two other gifted reading classes in the eighth grade did a huge project on these homes. I did the Bennett house, which is owned by Sam and Susan Burch. My other classmates did houses such as the Feldman house, the Travis Edwards house, the Hollingsworth house, the Holiday-Dorsey-Fife house, and Rainy Photography. We learned a lot of history in our hometown from this project.

I just was wondering why the county commission and city historic agency didn't have better communication. They could have prevented the destruction of the Dorsey house, and still got the jail built.

Kristen Merrick

The Dorsey house on Long Avenue ... had an interesting historical background. Hugh Dorsey's aunts lived in this house. He was the governor of Georgia in 1916 and was born in the Holiday-Dorsey-Fife house, another of Fayette's historic homes. A premier Atlanta architect, Neel Reid, was hired to renovate the home in the early 20th century.

Because of a lack of communication between county governments and the city agency, an irreplaceable structure has been razed to make room to expand the jail. Although the limit of a year and a half was realized by everyone, the people who were demolishing the house should have given a call at least two or three days in advance to let them know of the leveling.

Dee Humphrey

This house is very important to the history of the city I live in. I agree that we need progress in this city but I also agree that we need to preserve our heritage.

This house was home to the aunts of Hugh Dorsey, one of our former governors. The great Atlanta architect Neel Reid also renovated it. This house had many other stories and features that many people living in my city will probably never know about.

The part that made me the angriest is that the house would still be standing there today if the city and the county had communicated more. When the house was done, many stories went with it. I hope that a tragedy like this will never happen again.

Nick Guinee

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