Downtown Toccoa has recently attracted a wonderful new business, Hall Manor Mercantile & Gallery. Located in the newly renovated “Allgood Building” at 11 North Sage Street, the business is owned by Patrick & Marilyn Hall, formerly of Atlanta.

Open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m.-6 p.m., the store features gorgeous locally handcrafted furniture and accessories. And beginning in September, classes will be offered in Welsh Quilting and Wool Fall Motif Pillows.

An added opportunity for fun and recreation will be Ladies Night Out the third Thursday of each month from 7-9 p.m. During these sessions, participants will enjoy making new friends, learning a variety of crafts and leaving with a finished product.  For more information, call Marilyn at 706-827-0013.

Toccoa, Georgia – Every five years, Blue Ridge Country magazine readers vote on their favorite places to eat, overnight, hike, bike, camp, wildlife watch and more.  This year, Currahee Military Museum was voted second, Gold in the category of Museums. Platinum was awarded to Museum of Appalachia, in Tennessee.

The award winners are featured in the July/August issue of Blue Ridge Country, which celebrates the magazine’s 20th anniversary.  Reader votes were submitted through mailed paper ballots and the magazines website.

Currahee Military Museum is located at the restored ninety year old train depot, historic downtown Toccoa. The museum’s objective is a tribute to 17,000 paratroopers that trained in Toccoa during WWII.  Focal exhibit is a restored seventy foot horse stable, built 1922, Aldbourne, England.  Camp Toccoa paratroopers were housed in the stable before and after tine invasion of Normandy. The stable was dissembled flown to the United States and reconstructed in Toccoa in 2005.

The museum also has exhibits on the history of Stephens County, showcasing life for the last 100 years.

Toccoa was also selected in the Best Places to Go category, Gold in a tie with Abingdon, Virginia for antique shopping.

Blue Ridge County, produced by Leisure Publishing Company in Roanoke, VA, is a bimonthly magazine with the readership of 425,000.  It covers the mountains of nine states from Maryland to Alabama.  Established in 1988, the publication has won state, regional, national and international awards for writing, design and editing.

Please make plans to visit the museum and Toccoa, for more information please call 706-282-5055.

Toccoa has made a commitment to honor the paratroopers trained at Camp Toccoa. A citizen’s group, chaired by Currahee Club Member Bob Hamby is working with the Stephens County Historical Society to erect life-size sculptures of those who led these men during WWII. The first two statues have been commissioned and will be likenesses of Major Dick Winters and Jake McNeice. Others will follow as donations are received.

The sculptor is nationally known artist Bruce Everly, who with his wife Elizabeth, have moved here to work full time on this project. Bruce is a remarkable man who has used his talents to memorialize great American heroes of many eras. You can see some samples of his work at www.everlysculpture.com. An example of his wonderful work is also located in the Billiards Room in the Clubhouse.

Normally, the price for a life size sculpture of the quality that Bruce creates is $170,000, but because of his dedication and commitment to the legacy of the men of Currahee and their accomplishments, the cost is only $60,000 for each piece and includes staging, lighting and audio so that the story may be told authentically. The pieces will be located in downtown Toccoa and will be appropriately presented for maximum educational and aesthetic impact.

For more information, or to make a donation, please contact Chairman Bob Hamby at 706-886-3584 or bobhamby@alltel.net or Cynthia Brown at 706-827-1000 or cbrown@curraheeclub.com.