Local & State Headlines

New welcome center nears its opening

• The city's new welcome center should be open by the end of May, a visitor's bureau official says.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — Inside the old Bridge House on Front Street, workers busily add the final touches to the city’s new welcome center.

During an interview in the building last week with a visitor’s bureau official, the workers cut wood for the trimming inside the historic building’s upstairs. Others mopped and cleaned concrete floors downstairs. Large, diagonal squares make up the first floor’s central area, while the anterooms are still floorless.

Inside the second floor of the whitewashed building, light brown Heart of Pine wood complements the interior white, creating a dreamlike atmosphere — a far cry from the building that stood there before renovation began a couple years ago.

From one of the second story windows, an onlooker can gaze over a rolling field leading to the flowing Flint River below, the riverwalk following along the riverbank.

Visitors and Convention Bureau Convention Services Manager Lisa Riddle said the building should be ready to open by the end of May as the city’s freestanding welcome center, which currently is housed in the Albany Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s definitely going to be an asset for downtown,” she said Tuesday. “The chamber is good and central, but it’s a little off the beaten path where visitors walk.

“Now visitors can come here and find out all they need to know about Albany and Southwest Georgia.”

Floors, doors and trim work remain to be finished on the building before the exhibits can be installed, she said. The center will provide information to visitors about businesses and tourist spots in Albany and Southwest Georgia.

The first floor will house an exhibition area in its center, just behind the arched entryway. The exhibition will tell, through displays, the history of the Bridge House, Albany and Southwest Georgia, Riddle said.

The rooms immediately south of the exhibition room will be used for various brochures, a gift shop and office space, she said.

“Eventually we would like for it to increase tourism,” she said about the welcome center’s purpose. “But I think the main thing is it’s going to give visitors a more convenient resource for them to explore Albany and Southwest Georgia. The visitors are going to feel more welcome.”

More office space sits on the north end of the second story, while the floor’s large open room will serve as a conference and meeting room where the center can show a video of Albany and Southwest Georgia’s history to visitors and perhaps school field trips, she said.

During the interview Tuesday, Riddle began monologuing with herself over the color of drapes for the upstairs windows, seemingly conflicted over what would best suit the renovated building, which is laid out in a simple rectangle.

“It’s going to be an experience here. It’s going to be interactive,” she said.

More Headlines>>