The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 271

JM 1 2 Thursday, Dec. 11, 1997 FAYETTECOWETA The Atlanta Journal The Atlanta Constitution Join us for A Tltomas Kinkade Christmas Celebration Thorn and Nrwtte with Mrrritt, Chandler, Wimor and Evervtt tJ i hjiliju. I Digital Satellite System I I 770-253-4732 770-477-1030 I I I -800-6 1 5-9056 rS-. Yw I 5 1 Vlllag Chriitmat Chmtma Cottage VIII Special 1. ient Lditiott You are invited to attend A Thomas Kinkade Christmas Celebration Video Event.

This video features Thomas Kinkade, his family and friends sharing their thoughts on this special occasion. By attending you will have the opportunity to purchase: Village Christmas, Christmas Cottage VIII This exclusive SN Limited Event Edition is published as a 12" the same size as the other images in that collection. Only as an event attendee will you have the opportunity to purchase this special size. SI Joy to the World, Inspirational Print This exclusive Christmas Video Event piece features Thomas Kinkade's beloved Skaters' Pond and the opening music and lyrics to the uplifting Christmas Carol for which it is named. You will also haie the opportunity to win Thomas Kinkade artwork, a one year membership to the Thomas Kinkade Collectors' Society, and other exciting prizes.

i -a i Jbte. This special Christmas Celebration will be taking place at: Come Visit Our New Addition III MEMBER PPFA 1992 HWY. 64 W. FAYETTEVILLE 111 kill nil reinr rit- i-rrr- 1 lrTJEXL Counlmld Framing "r-xviv BILL ROBINSON Staff Once it was a job: Hammond Hatchett, the son of Hetty Jane Dunaway Sewell's niece, once sold tickets from this booth. Kudzu covers the remnants of an actress's elegant dream THE WORLD $99EACH Dunaway Gardens: An era of flowers, food and theater faded as change brought alternatives.

Regardless of what kind of movies you like and where you live, you buy the gardens, but that didn't work out either. Now the land lies almost dormant, but Hatchett has a caretaker, Kevin Pelfrey, 26, from Sharpsburg, clearing away the overgrowth as winter sets in. The old rock chimney and rock walls of Inez Smith's kitchen, encircled in a sea of kudzu, rise slightly and stare silently out toward the blue asphalt of Ga. 70 as it curves down toward Cedar Creek and the new concrete bridge. Said Betty Potts of Roscoe: "Nothing is much left there now but the memories.

But they're worth a million dollars. And nothing in my memory has the richness, the sense of atmosphere, that Dunaway possessed." By Bill Robinson STAFF WRITER The ruins of Dunaway Gardens, some six miles north of Newnan, are covered by heavy green-brown foliage. But for Elizabeth Beers, the memories of Dunaway Gardens and Miss Hetty Jane Dunaway Sewell remain evergreen. can find a film fast with the AC's 14-kt. GOLD BiRTHSTONE JEWELRY Sterling Silver Kid 3 Gold Costa jnMtrs Ik BANKS CROSSING SHOPPING CENTER FAYETTEVILLE 460-0681 Movie Theatre Directory page.

It's reel "Oh, they were something," said Beers. She speaks of the gardens and Hetty Jane as if they were one inseparable though Miss Hettv Jane died convenient! i 1 Country Pursuits Beretta Firearms Accessories Reloading Shooting Clothing 692 N. Glynn St. Ste. S.

Fayetteville jPf 770-716-7992 HOLIDAY ish Lis Madame Alexander Coca Cola Carhop Doll MjS The Good TABLE SET HARDWOOD 199 v. mm mm Dunaway Gardens. This was around 1926." During the Depression, Hetty Jane hired lots of unemployed local help (SO cents a day; but then you could ride a train to Atlanta for 59 cents), and what was finally constructed were six terraced gardens laid out in rock, with rock fences, pathways and curving climbing rock steps. Huge trees surrounded each garden. The Little Stone Mountain, an acre of rock, yielded a large swimming pool (dynamited totally out of the rock) and was fed by an overhead spring.

The Hanging Gardens were terraced into five levels, and fenced in by flowers; the Japanese Rock Garden had the umbrella trees; and the Sunken Garden featured a wishing well, made of rock, of course, and in this garden one of the seven springs at Dunaway rolled over the rocks and into a waterfall which descended down near the Patchwork Barn. Ashworth said this rustic structure, seating some 400, along with the outdoor theater, capacity 1,003, hosted plays and players from across the nation and some from Europe. The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo practiced there, and Edwin Strawbridge and Aida Barrona, prima ballerina and co-producer of the Hollywood Ballet, came to Dunaway. Meanwhile, the food at the Blue Bonnet Tea Room became just as famous. Walt Disney dined on soul food there in the 1950s and tried to hire away Inez Smith, the Blue Bonnet's legendary cook.

Death and a sale The Patchwork Barn Theater opened in late spring 1934. Among those trained at the Patchwork was Ophelia Colley from Tennessee, who later used the alias Minnie Pearl on the Grand Ole Opry. Beers remembers the tea room. "It was called the Blue Bonnet, but it could have been called the Pink House," she said. "Miss Hetty Jane loved pink, and she had huge sections of oak trees the round part of the tree sawed out and legs put on them.

The seats were always painted pink." Miss Hetty was from Conway, but she also loved Georgia. Wayne Sewell was crippled in a car accident in the late 1950s; Miss Hetty left the barn theater and its productions to care for her husband. But he outlived her. Miss Hetty Jane died just before Christmas in 1961; Wayne Sewell died in early spring of 1965. Two years later Majorie Hogan Hatchett, Hetty Jane's niece, sold Dunaway.

A developer planned huge things that never happened. Failed plans Ten years later developer Scott Hudgens bought the gardens, cleared out the undergrowth, then donated the land to Dunaway Gardens Restorations, which is led by Ashworth and Hammond Hatchett, 52, of Newnan, who is the son of Hetty Jane's niece. The group almost secured the facade of Taia from the "Gone With the Wind" movie set and planned a small theme park. But financing was a problem. Not too long ago singer Alan Tarksnn, from Newnan, wanted to 1 Doll A Shop Nituril Whiti Tabl Cluir St ilttNitiinllGnM I lut i.

1 1 1. I J'J Jdl. I i L'Jt bookcase desA BOSTON ROCKER 770-719-9779 692 North Fayette Center (GA 85) bTUUtNl hayetteville 'fft Dunaway Sewell 36 years ag0( Dunaway closed a few years after her death. "Miss Hetty Jane was vivid, had a commanding presence. When I was a young girl I would rush to the front window.

She would be visiting her niece, Majo-rie Hatchett, across the street, and when she left, saying her goodbyes and so forth, well, it was just something," Beers said. "She would be dressed to the nines, like she was onstage, and when Miss Hetty Jane went anywhere it was always with a style and a flourish. "I'm from Newnan, but my people were from Roscoe. Dunaway Gardens was part of my childhood, and even after Lewis and I married, we would go back to plays there at the Patchwork Barn, or the open theater, or to eat at the Blue Bonnet Tea Room." Killed by asphalt, TV And Beers knows what killed Dunaway Gardens. "Paved roads and radio and then, finally, it was television," she said.

"People began going to Atlanta for the theater, or leaving to dine in restaurants on weekends usually in Atlanta. And, then of course, along came TV, and then people simply stayed home most of the time the theater was transported into their homes." Thus, time has passed by the 64-acre gardens. It has been nearly a half-century since the place was in full bloom literally and figuratively. But oh what a bloom while the flowers lasted. Coweta historian Carolyn Ash-worth, president of Dunaway Gardens Restorations lives in a historic Roscoe house.

She said Dunaway "was once known as the largest floral rock garden in the South. It was designed and built as a nationwide training center for the performing arts during the late 1920s." A lustrous past And who was Miss Hetty Jane? "She was the highest-paid actress on the Chautauqua Circuit," said Ashworth. "Wayne P. Sewell was a booking agent, and they met on the summer circuit and later married. He reacquired land from his grandfather's cotton plantation, and Hetty Jane began buildincr her Hm 10-5 Sat.

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