The 26th Annual Spring Place Community Festival will be held Saturday, August 19, at the Old Spring Place Methodist Church just south of Georgia Highway 225. This year’s theme is “What is the cuisine of the spring place?”
Hosted by the Spring Place Ruritan Club and the Whitfield Murray Historical Society, the festival commemorates Spring Place’s past and preserves the Church, built in 1875 and the oldest building ever built for public use in Murray County. raise funds for
Admission is free, but you can purchase a raffle ticket to win a special ‘cooking’ gift basket containing food city gift cards, food and cooking supplies. T-shirts will also be on sale.
The festival starts at 8am and has something for everyone. Breakfast biscuits, coffee, soft drinks, snacks and bottled water are available for purchase. Members of the Ruritan Club host an annual bake sale with all kinds of homemade cakes and sweets. Huge selection of used books, collectibles, and more including vintage glass and cookware, tableware, Christmas and other seasonal decorations, photos and picture frames, vinyl records and CDs, linens, baskets, tools, toys, and other household items. Collect flea market items. as well as the purchaser.
Special exhibits include a display of antique kitchen items from the Spring Place area. These items remind us of agitators, milking tables, iron skillets, enamel pots, jelly jars, etc., not necessarily kitchens that included microwaves, food processors, and dishwashers. Glasses, cloth for feed bags, strainers, dippers, kerosene lamps, etc. Recipes and cookbooks will also be on display.
Vendors include Cedartown’s Judy Allred with a wreath, local honey vendor Benny Huggins, local craftsman Michelle Corff, and woodworkers Ken Vance and Chris Davis. etc. Festival regular and author Jody Lowery will be on hand to sell and sign books about local historical events. Jacob Howard plans to sell his ‘family history video’. One about the interesting burials in the famous Springs Place Cemetery and his other about the history of Murray County. Various publications of the Whitfield Murray Historical Society are also available, some of whose authors will be signed by purchasers.
The popular auction starts at 10am. This year’s auction includes antique and vintage furniture, rugs, dozens of prints by local artists, gift cards from area restaurants and businesses, quilting frames (and quilts), antique lawn mowers and an antique school. . Desks and even building materials. Auction items can be previewed on the Old Spring Place Methodist Church Facebook page during Festival Week.
Murray High School Alumni Association will also sell prints, postcards and notecards featuring the “Old Rock Building,” as well as rooms in the Old Church Museum, which will be open all day. Newly discovered Native American artifacts found locally and recently donated to the Historical Society by the Tankersley family of Eaton are on display.
Parking is available on Elm Street and a shuttle bus is provided to the church and auction site. Thanks to generous donors and the efforts of the Murray County Roads Authority, handicapped parking is now available adjacent to the old church.
For more information about the festival, call Elizabeth Robinson at 706-695-6021, Jyana and Chuck Smith at 706-695-8297, Tim Howard at 706-695-2740, or check us out on Facebook.