Berry-Powell-Berry Clinic/Old Villa Rica Library

The site of the oldest international designed building in West Georgia. Significant for connections to the local doctors establishing a practice and later for early historic preservation efforts in Villa Rica. Demolished for parking after years of public dispute to its significance. The fight to save the building was one reason the founder of the Villa Rica Historic Preservation Committee formed the organization, however, he was removed for "unified face" after the committee was put under the Downtown Development Authority which sought to demolish the significant structure for parking.

From the National Register nomination (not submitted) by Ernest Evertt Blevins:
On the 1923 and 1933 Sanborn (listed as 300 Chambers Street) a plus shaped house is shown in the center of the lot with porches on southwest corner squaring out the house on Carroll Street. A wrap around porch was on the on the northeast corner. There is also an outbuilding located on the west side of the lot. In 1944 the lot is vacant.

One third interest in the lot was sold by Robert L. Berry to John E. Powell, Sr on 18 January 1947. In 1951 the International style building was built as the Powell-Berry-Powell Clinic which on 6 February 1958 the shares of interest of the partners were sold to West Georgia Associates, Inc. (It is an undocumented hypothesis that this is a legal merger of the three men previously mentioned). This structure was the earliest International style building in West Georgia and predated the old Douglasville Courthouse which is on the National Register of Historic Places by about 6 years.

The exterior walls were stucco exterior walls with exposed brick on the lower 3 feet +/-. The roof is flat covered with tar and gravel. Interior the walls are sheetrock with Celotex ceiling finishing. The building sits on a reinforced concrete slab covered with vinyl tile. The building has central heating and air conditioning.

When the new library was built in the 1970s, the old one became a doctor’s office and clinic. It is now unclear exactly when the office was converted to be the new city library but it is believed to be to be done by 1976 when a the library is mentioned in Anderson’s History of Villa Rica [The City of Gold]. The new library was built west of town ca. 1985 and it is believed then is when this building reverted back to a medical office and the Villa Rica office of the Carroll County Health Department. It also has the county service program housed in it until 2004.

The city of Villa Rica demolished the structure in December 2007 while early versions of the National Register Nomination was researched and written.

Tony Montclaim, "Downtown Parking Survey Underway" The Villa Rican, 25 August 2005 p. 1, 11 Ernest Blevins, ";Old Library' Piece of Villa Rica History'" The Villa Rican, 3 August 2006, p. 5. Montclaim,"Villa Rica Man Fights to Save Old Library," 2 June 2006, p 1 Blevins, “Potential National Historic Register District Encompasses a Lot of Villa Rica History,” with photograph of the author from 2005, The Villa Rican, 20 August 2009, 1, 4.