Toward the end of 2013, Krack faced a dilemma: While the courtroom was no longer in use, the presence of the heavy oak pieces made leasing the 2,200 square foot space improbable at best.
Krack, respectful of local history, was unwilling to discard the furniture. Plus, the massive grouping had been assembled — piece by piece — inside the room itself, and could only be removed by taking it apart.
As luck would have it, while Krack was mulling the situation, Lynn Miller, instructor of Law Enforcement Technology at Albany Tech, became aware of the dilemma and figured the furniture was just the thing to help her students learn.
“I like to teach by doing,” Miller said. “Textbooks and videos are all right, but I felt this would give my students a feeling of reality.”
In November, Miller suggested to Krack that perhaps the owner of the Griggs Building might like to donate the furniture to ATC. Dr. Anthony Parker, president of ATC and others were consulted and the deal was done.
“I just couldn’t see it going out the door and to a landfill,” said Krack. “That would be a national disgrace.”
But then there was the job of getting it all out the door. Albany Tech hired the local firm LRA Constructors to disassemble the pieces and provide diagrams for their reassembly at the college. During the process, workmen discovered on the underside of the judge’s bench, a shipping mark and date written in white paint: Maly Brothers Ltd. Albany, Ga 1911. The Griggs Building has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1979.
The oak pieces were taken to 112 of Freedom Hall at ATC, the current site of the college courtroom lab where staff members and the project carpenter reassembled them over a period of several months.
“I love it. It’s absolutely fabulous,” Krack said on Wednesday. “I’m so excited that we were able to give this to someone to be utilized in the way it was intended.”
According to Miller, many of her students will spend a lot of time in court as part of their jobs as police officers or correctional officers, and so it’s important they feel comfortable in a courtroom setting.”
“A police officer’s testimony can make or break a case,” Miller said, “so they need to be able to get up there with some degree of confidence and understanding.”
By contract, should the college ever find it has no use for the furniture, all of the old oak pieces will go to the Thronateeska Museum for display, Krack said.
©2015 The Albany Herald, Ga.
