Capital Campaign
Capital Campaign News
Phase I of the Destination: Depot Project is complete! Offices and meeting rooms located in the renovated “Just Imagine Cottage” at 95 Depot Circle Drive adjacent to the historic train depot at Renaissance Park on the campus of the former Central State Hospital, are open and in use for business, programs and activities.
Phase II of the Destination: Depot Project, the renovation of the 1891 train depot for a regional Heritage Center, is underway! The Board of Trustees continues raising funds for the architectural plans and interior renovations.
The Depot
The depot building was built in 1891 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Three additions during the first half of the twentieth century bring the total square footage to approximately 13,600 sq. ft. on three levels. Once completed, the 200-seat Theater will host performances by local and visiting theatrical groups and offer high school students “hands on” training in stage sound and lighting, theater technology, and music production. This venue will also meet a critical need for space to hold community meetings, cultural events, performing arts recitals, and social gatherings. “The Depot Diner” will provide a location for a food service/catering operation, and the book store and gift shop will promote Georgia products, artists, and authors.
State-of-the-art interactive exhibits will chronicle Georgia and United States history from visits by the earliest Native American hunters, through the frontier and antebellum years, to the 21st century. Two new exhibits on the history of Central State Hospital and contributions of the African-American community in Baldwin County will enhance the visitor experience. The renovation will preserve the vacant and deteriorating depot and transform it into a tourist attraction, an educational venue, and a social gathering place and help make the new Heritage Center self-sustaining.
When the Museum staff moves into its new offices in The Depot, the “Just Imagine Cottage” will become the location for after-school and summer STEAM programs in drone building, robotics, theater technology, production, and graphic arts. In addition to educating our youth, providing training for good paying jobs, and attracting tourists on a global scale, The Depot will be a scalable prototype for a statewide initiative to assist 246 other Georgia communities with existing culture-based programs to reach financial sustainability while producing high school graduates who can compete for the technology-based jobs that will drive the economy of the State.
The Depot: History, Education, Art, & Culture in Central GA
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 1177
Milledgeville, GA 31059-1177
Physical Address:
95 Depot Circle Drive, Milledgeville, GA 31061 (former CSH campus)
For more information about the Destination: Depot Project and how to get involved, contact Dr. Amy Wright at awright@thedepotga.org or 478-453-1803.
Completed Projects
This year with funds raised by supporters, end of year donations, a grant from The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America-Georgia, and a match from a long-time museum member for the “Ramp It Up” Project on GA Gives Day 2019, Georgia’s Old Capital Heritage Center at The Depot, Inc., built three ADA-approved ramps making access possible from the parking lot to the front entrance doors of The Depot. The former ramp required entrance from the street and was not wide enough to accommodate modern motorized wheelchairs.
The ramp accessibility project – completed 2020