A Cultural Resources Survey of a Proposed Bicycle Path Associated with the Athens Heritage Trail and Oconee River Greenway, Clarke County, Georgia

The City of Athens, Georgia wishes to develop its North Oconee River riverfront as a greenway corridor, work will eventually include wooded areas, a bicycle path, interpretive displays, entrances and parking lots and other related infrastructure. Federal funds, mainly a grant from the Department of Transportation's intermodal Surface Transportation Enhancement Act (ISTEA), will be used to design and build parts of the project. Robinson Fisher and

Associates, Inc., a planning and landscape architecture firm, has been retained to facilitate the design and planning process. Plans for a Phase I portion of a bicycle path have now been formulated. The Phase I portion (Figure 1) will start at the intersection of Broad and Willow Streets on the west side of the North Oconee River in downtown Athens; from there, the path will parallel the river and Willow Street and will be approximately 10 feet from the curb. North

of North Avenue, the bicycle path continues to parallel Willow Street, and near a 1920s dynamite storage building (which is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places) it will transition from the road shoulder onto the street. At the intersection of Willow and Elizabeth Streets the path will turn north on Elizabeth for a block, then will cross the North Oconee River on the College Avenue bridge. From the east side of the bridge to Sandy Creek,

the termination point of this phase of the project, the path will follow the river levee, going underneath the U.S. 441/Athens bypass bridge over the river. At the north end of the route the bicycle path passes the old Athens waterworks (built in 1916) and caretaker's house (1930s?).

This portion of the path ends next to brick and masonry support pylons to the old covered bridge (built in 1816) that once spanned Sandy Creek on Old Commerce Road. The total length of this phase of the bike path is 3. 5 km (2 .1 mi). A cultural resources survey of the proposed bicycle path was conducted by Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. in late September, 1998. The entire route was covered on foot and two archeological sites, an artifact occurrence, and three historic properties were recorded. One of the archeological sites is the Athens Butcher and Abattoir Company (ca. 1926 - 1970), and the other is the old Athens dump. The historic structures consist of the dynamite shed, the old waterworks buildings and the bridge pylon at Sandy Creek. If constructed as planned, the bicycle path will not affect any of these resources.

The current Willow Street is modern, and was constructed during the 1970s. The original Willow Street was less than 1000 ft long and was located west of the current alignment. A portion of the original road is now covered by a parking lot for a l 960s apartment complex that faces Broad Street. Construction of the new road involved a great deal of grading and filling of the original ground surface, which obliterated most of the old house sites that were along the

route. However, there were never many houses to begin with. Sanborn Fire Insurance maps and old aerial photographs show 14 houses along the original alignment of Willow Street, near Broad Street, but these sites are outside of the area of potential effect. Four other·houses are depicted on the maps and aerial photographs at the intersection of North Avenue and Willow Street (formerly known as River and Bridge Streets, respectively). These sites are now covered by road fill.