Last week Thomaston lost a downtown icon. The Hotel Upson was taken down. To show how small of a town Thomaston is, this grew a crowd, some even took a few bricks as souvenirs. In its day it was a very elegant building. A lot of important people stayed there in its day. It was a big part of the downtown skyline. Downtown will look very different with it gone, a very big hole where it once stood. Once the center of activity, for the last several years it has been empty, almost forgotten about. The deconstruction made it the center of attention for one last time as people came to pay last respects for a building few of us really new. Most people my age and younger had probably never stepped foot inside.
Some remarked what a tragedy it was for it to be torn down. and I agree. But this tragedy didn't start Thursday night. this tragedy started probably over 50 years ago when use of the Hotel started to wane. Travelers started taking other routes, business fell off, the money dried up. Maintenance became less affordable. The longer it went unmaintained the more expensive it would have been to save it. It had finally reach the point of no return. So now we will have a parking lot where a once proud building stood and in a few years we will be hard pressed to remember exactly what it looked like with the building there. Much like when I try to recall the old Silvertown before Piggly Wiggly came to town, or Northside before Grant City was built . (Think K-Mart, Fred's, McDonald's).
Time marches on, and building like people either keep up, stay relevant or get cast to the side.
Good bye Hotel Upson, I never really knew you, but I will miss you just the same.
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