Cave Spring City Hall

Fannin Hall was initially constructed as the main building of the Georgia School for the Deaf, a campus dating to 1849, and the eleventh such school of its kind established in the United States. The building is named after the school’s founder, O. P. Fannin, an educator who served the school from 1846 to 1859. Fannin had trained at the American Asylum in Hartford, Connecticut, learning the pedagogical methods of sign language and deaf education under Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. Fannin brought those methods back to Georgia and offered training to educators from neighboring states during the formative era of American deaf education. After the school relocated to its nearby Perry Farm campus, the City of Cave Spring undertook an extensive restoration and rehabilitation of the original antebellum main building and it remains in use today as a civic building for the City of Cave Spring.

In 1846, O. P. Fannin began holding classes for deaf students in a log cabin in Cave Spring while students were housed with local families in private residences. In December 1847, the State of Georgia established the Georgia Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb and appropriated funds for land acquisition and construction of a suitable building to house the school. The school purchased approximately eight-and-a-half acres from the Hearn Manual Labor School and proceeded with construction of a two-story rectangular building of red brick, measuring 40 × 70 feet, with central hallways that divided each floor into four equal quadrants.

Reflecting the pattern of growth and adaptation that characterized many deaf schools, Fannin Hall was enlarged several times during its first ten years. A rear (east) ell, 27 feet wide by 50 feet long, was added to the building in 1850 to accommodate the growing student population. Additions in 1857 included one extension to the south, 50 feet wide by 70 feet long, and another to the east, 20 × 27 feet. A detached two-story brick shop building, 30 × 100 feet, provided space for a mechanical department, intended to facilitate instruction in the trades so that students could become self-sufficient after graduation. Trade education was extensive and varied and included agriculture, blacksmithing, woodworking, shoemaking, and tailoring. The printmaking shop eventually grew to produce the town’s newspaper, The Cave Spring Enterprise.

The school's growth ceased in March 1862 during the Civil War as male teachers went into military service. It was briefly used as a hospital during this period by both Confederate and Union armies. Although the school suffered minor material losses (mostly items that had been left behind), the building itself was not damaged.

The school resumed operations in February 1867 under a newly appointed superintendent who initiated functional and stylistic changes. In 1882, a small extension was made to the north end of Fannin Hall to house the principal’s residence. A third floor was added to accommodate additional dormitory space, changing the original gable roof to a mansard with ornately detailed dormer windows. During this time, plumbing and mechanical systems were updated, and the buildings were recast in a High Victorian Gothic style with a more exuberant roofline, dormer windows, patterned chimney pots, exterior porches, verandas, and landscaped grounds. Although the building had undergone several stylistic changes since its 1849 construction, the form and materials of the original remained visible.

By 1937, Fannin Hall had fallen into disrepair and was condemned as a fire hazard. The newly appointed superintendent, Clayton Hollingsworth, undertook an extensive campaign of remodeling and renovation of Fannin Hall. Much of the Victorian Gothic detailing was removed, and Fannin Hall was recast with a more sedate character. The building was further simplified with the shortening of the east ell in 1947.

The Georgia School for the Deaf Historic District was added to the National Register in 1980. Contributing structures include Fannin Hall, the Freeman Hall dormitory (constructed in 1907), and the Richardsonian Romanesque Industrial Arts Building (constructed in 1894).

Due to the discovery of asbestos, the school moved its operations from the “Fannin campus” to its secondary campus at the nearby Perry Farm in 1984, where the former segregated Georgia School for the Deaf for African Americans had been located. Fannin Hall was abandoned.

With the recognition of the historic and cultural significance of the Georgia School for the Deaf, and the region’s early involvement in public education, the City of Cave Spring purchased the Fannin campus from the state in 1997 for $178,000 and moved its city offices to Fannin Hall in August 1999. Extensive renovations began in 2014 to improve the facilities and enhance accessibility for visitors with disabilities while retaining as much of the original historical material as possible. The cost of the rehabilitation totaled more than $2.6 million. Fannin Hall reopened as a municipal complex for the city of Cave Spring in 2015.