Wednesday, January 3, 2024–8:35 a.m.

-Staff reports-

A preliminary application has been submitted to nominate the Callier Springs Country Club property to the List of Historical Places for its history going back to the Cherokee Land lottery in 1832.

The site was also the home to settlers from Belgium in the late 1840s.

The research and process began years ago and was delayed by pandemic shutdowns in the academic community. 

The Bill Jones Architect firm, local officials, local historians, historic preservationists, and Grant Miller, general manager, owner, and public relations and advertising director of the Callier Springs Country Club have worked vigilantly to submit the preliminary application. The application is 42 pages long and includes letters of support from Floyd County and the City of Rome.  Plans are to continue the application process in 2024 and provide the state with all additional requested information. 

The team recently had a local youth join us, a Rome High Graduate Ashlyn Earnest who is a junior at the University of Georgia studying history and historic preservation.

According to Miller, the Cherokee Land Lottery divided Cherokee County into 10 counties including Floyd, and the land was dispersed where the property eventually came under the ownership of General Lehardy and others to set up a colony in 1848 for Belgian Colonists. 

In 1894, a school was set up on the property by the wife of Dr. Robert Battey.  The school was later moved and became one of the first Floyd County schools, Battey Heights School.  In 1935, the property was developed into a 9-hole executive golf course.

The Rome Area History Center currently has an exhibit with information about the Belgians who came to Rome to settle on the property.