- The firehouse, built in 1929, once served as a fire station, nurse's clinic, and carpenter's shop for Pebble Hill Plantation.
- A $10,000 grant from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation and the 1772 Foundation will fund repairs to woodwork, windows, and drainage.
- Pebble Hill plans to open more of the building to the public after phase two of restoration, expected to be completed by mid-2026.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Before city fire departments were nearby, Pebble Hill relied on its own firehouse to protect its many wood-frame buildings from lightning and disaster.
I'm showing you how this once-critical safety hub is being restored and why its story still matters in 2025.
Even though it's known as the firehouse, this 1929 building was much more than that.
It also had a carpenter's shop for on-site repairs and a nurse's station that treated both Pebble Hill workers and folks from nearby plantations.
"Pebble Hill is open as a museum, and so a museum helps preserve history," said Lori Curtis, Curator. "It preserves culture, and in particular here in Thomasville, Pebble Hill is the epitome of a certain type of lifestyle that kept Thomasville growing in a period of economic downturn."
To keep that story alive, Pebble Hill is using a $10,000 matching grant from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation and the 1772 Foundation.
The money will help stop water damage and make sure this historic space can keep teaching future generations.
"We are looking at using these funds to repair much-needed rotten wood and windows on the building, as well as hoping to help some with the drainage situation at the front," said Whitney White, the executive director. "So if we can stop the water intrusion to the building, then we can continue to raise funds and work for other ways to restore and help better preserve the building. But we need to stop the water intrusion first and foremost before we can take phase two,"
Once phase two begins, Pebble Hill hopes to reveal more about what made this building so unique like the old medical supplies in the nurse's station, and the cone-shaped fire buckets made that way so people wouldn't steal them for chores in the dairy!
"And the nurse's station in particular has a huge story to tell, and it is one that we hope to develop over time," said Curtis. "But now it's important for us to preserve the structure where it is housed and be able to tell that story for the future."
The grant-funded portion of the restoration must be completed by this time next year.
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