Lavonia Looking for Historic Town Photos, Planning Video Historical Archive

An effort is underway in Lavonia to capture the memories of those who have grown up in Lavonia or have lived there for many years.

City officials are asking longtime Lavonia residents to dig through their photo albums and archives to find photos of the town and townsfolk from days gone by to submit for a historic archive.

Mayor Courtney Umbehant says it’s an effort to preserve the City’s history and heritage.

“We are asking everyone who has historic photos of Lavonia to submit those to the Welcome Center to Vivian or Barbara so they can create an archive. They will scan those and give those back to them. Or they can be emailed. Some of the best pictures of Lavonia have never been seen by Lavonia as a whole. We know some of the best pictures are in personal archives and we’d like to get as many of those pictures as we can in our archives,” he said.

Umbehant said the photos will be stored digitally but some may later be printed out to display at the Train Depot.

Additionally, Umbehant said the City is launching another project to record the memories of Lavonia from senior residents of the town.

“Over the last 10-15 years a lot of Lavonia’s historians have passed away and a lot of that history has been lost. So before that continues we want to be able to record as much history as we can so future generations can learn as much about the City they live in as they can,” the Mayor explained. “We’re in the planning stages now.”

The Mayor said they plan to video people and their memories, specifically the government itself and downtown businesses and just how life in Lavonia was as they were growing up.

Umbehant added that such a historical archive of audio recordings would not only inform newcomers to Lavonia of the town they’ve adopted but also aid future town leaders.

If you would like to bring photos by the Welcome Center at the train depot for them to scan you can contact Vivian Young or Barbara Busby at 706-356-5725.