The United Methodist Church of Warsaw or Warsaw United Methodist Church, previously a Lord of Life Lutheran church and a United Methodist Church campground are about to be razed within a few days unless we let the commissioners know what a tragedy this would be. This church and cemetery go back to the 1800's and is in a beautiful condition. I understand the current church is wanting to sell to a developer and the developer wishes to place a small strip mall on this 3 acres. This is not a great idea - the cemetery is very precious as it has several civil war, world war I and other war veterans buried there. In addition there are several Masons, Woodsmen of World and other known entities buried there. The Findlay families and the Summerour families are two of the perhaps better known families buried there. The Findlay families are there from many days gone by. The cemetery is rather large, and contains many MEMORABLE items - one of which are the slab tombstones, and the memorials built by the Woodsmen of the World. I am very sorry to bring this to everyone at this late date, but I did not hear of this until yesterday, and was unable to get the pertinent information until today. I have posted several photos below for review - note they are large as I have not had time to reduce them. http://www.rootsweb.com/~gafulton/warsaw/EX000009.JPG http://www.rootsweb.com/~gafulton/warsaw/EX000011.JPG http://www.rootsweb.com/~gafulton/warsaw/EX000016.JPG http://www.rootsweb.com/~gafulton/warsaw/EX000017.JPG If everyone would be willing to send an email to the following, I would be much appreciative of the effort. Atlanta Journal -- mpearson@ajc.com, dfernandez@ajc.com letters@ajc.com mail@northfulton.com, nealznuze@cox.com dolinger@fulton.k12.ga.us mailto:mike.kenn@co.fulton.ga.us mailto:robb.pitts@co.fulton.ga.us mailto:bfulton@mindspring.com mailto:elaine.greer@co.fulton.ga.us mailto:Emma.Darnell@co.fulton.ga.us mailto:district6@co.fulton.ga.us mailto:William.Edwards@co.fulton.ga.us Bob Fulton District 3 Email Bob Fulton -- mailto:bfulton@mindspring.com 404-730-8213 If you will just copy the above email addresses and paste into your email to lines: SUBJECT: VOTE TO SAVE WARSAW UNITED METHODIST CHURCH IN FULTON COUNTY, GA Here is some Optional information to include: Please vote to Save the WARSAW UNITED METHODIST CHURCH IN FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA Location: Medlock Bridge Road - Proposed Rezoning from Agriculture 1 to C1 Office/Retail Zoning Notice - 2002Z-116, 2002VC-198 TO BE HEARD - 10:00 AM Monday 2/3/03 at Pryor Street in Atlanta by Board of Commissioners (Fulton) The church and cemetery referenced above have great historical and genealogical value, in addition to the heritage of the United Methodist Church as this site was a site of the original UMC Campground. It has also been a Lutheran Church and in 1987 it merged both Warsaw and Johns Creek to form the Johns Creek United Methodist Church. The historical and genealogical values to both Fulton County, Forsyth County, Medlock Bridge Road, The City of Alpharetta, Ocee, and Warsaw communities would be a terrible loss to all. In Gwinnett County their UMC Campground is a historic site and is promoted on their driving tour and by the County. It is a great attraction for Gwinnett. Why do we continue to allow our heritage to slip away and be torn down to implement shopping and strip malls. This property was never deeded to this church for a STRIP MALL, it was deeded for the church and cemetery. I am equally sure the people that donated it, and I believe to be buried in the cemetery, would not appreciate the leaders of our fair county destroying the very thing that they donated land for. Please let them rest in peace of the church along with the cemetery and keep the heritage of this place intact. The Summerour house is at the Autrey Preservation Site and many of the Summerours from that family are buried here, in addition to the Findlay families that I believe originally owned th e surrounding land. Please don't allow this heritage to be torn down, the cemetery and the people residing in the cemetery deserve to "rest in peace" as it states on many of the monuments there. The fact that there are civil war soldiers, WWI soldiers, WOW and Mason's buried therein make this a unique & historical place THAT SHOULD BE PRESERVED FOR THE FUTURE. The church which was built in the 1800's is in great shape, please ensure that the church is left standing because this history can never be replaced. YOU the Commissioners are the deciding factors on this -- please at the very least do not pass this at this time, give time for options to be worked with the parties - surely we can find another place for the strip mall and perhaps a donor to give the $ that the church wants and let the church stand. We were totally unaware of this situation until Friday of this week, there is not a rezoning sign on Medlock Bridge Road - for that reason alone it should @ the very least be tabled. However, we are asking you to search your heart and do the right thing - preserve this church and cemetery so that the heritage is here for future generations. Signed: _______________ Email Address: Other Contact: