20 M E T R O S P I R I T A U G 7 2 0 0 3
a Has I e stin t D s d d u t atio s s Share of O A ug n By Brian Neill
You don’t even have to go as far as some of the destinations we’ve listed in The Roadside Oddities Tour to find several unusual sights and places. Augusta has made it onto various Web site guides to offbeat attractions. The most frequently mentioned is the old Haunted Pillar on the corner of Fifth and Broad streets.
Legend has it that this concrete pillar was part of the old Lower Market. According to Historic Augusta, back in the late 1800s an itinerant preacher was mad that authorities wouldn’t let him preach in the market, so he cursed the city and said the market would be destroyed.
Reprint courtesy of King Features Syndicate
Not long after, in 1878, a freak cyclone struck the market, leveling it. A local grocer purchased the pillar for $50 and moved it to the corner where it now stands, according to Historic Augusta’s account. Apparently, as the legend goes, two construction workers who attempted to move the pillar during a roadwidening job were struck by lightning and killed. Stories of the pillar’s evil powers have taken on a life of their own, and the common theme holds that disaster will befall anyone who places their hands upon it. Go ahead. Touch it. We dare you. You know how sometimes you live around something for a long time and never give it much thought, then suddenly, its peculiarity suddenly dawns on you? Well, we have a bridge named Butt. Sure, it’s named after Maj. Archibald Butt, an aide to former President William H. Taft, and someone who heroically ushered countless passengers aboard the Titanic into lifeboats before perishing in the disaster. But most people simply call it Butt Bridge. That, along with its lions, eagles and glass spheres has gotten it mentioned on a site or two of unusual places of interest. The bridge almost fell prey to federal transportation spending cuts
back in 1989, but received an eleventh-hour reprieve through legislation by two Georgia Congressmen who saved it from impending demolition.
1947, when the building was home to the Lily-Tulip Cup Company. It was emblazoned with the Sweetheart logo in the early 1980s, McGuire said. “Everywhere I go,” McGuire said, “people always ask me, ‘What’s inside that cup?’ “ Well, the company’s lobby on the first floor, and storage just below the cup’s lip on the second floor, McGuire tells them. The unique structure even recently garnered the attention of nationally syndicated cartoonist, Bill Griffith, a.k.a Zippy the Pinhead, for one of his strips, featured below. “It’s a landmark,” McGuire said. “Everyone knows where it is.” Here are some additional sources of information for those interested in plotting future roadside oddities tours: www.eccentricamerica.net www.roadsideamerica.com
Another oddity Augusta possesses falls into the category of giant muffler men statues and other ostentatious, oversized signs representative of their particular businesses — like those huge bugs for pest control companies, for instance. It’s the Sweetheart cup built into the facade of the company’s offices, located at the eastern portion of Wrightsboro Road. Brett McGuire, plant manager at Sweetheart, said the cup dates to
www.ratrun.com “The New Roadside America: The Modern Traveler’s Guide to the Wild and Wonderful World of America’s Tourist” (Fireside paperback, 288 pages, $14).