On Friday afternoons this spring, a group of University of Georgia students and their professor would leave campus, driving out Broad Street to the Beech Haven property, ready to assess its historic grounds.

Beech Haven, originally a more than 200-acre property, was purchased by the Rowland family in 1912. The family and its descendants built several more structures and gardens, including homes, a retreat for Presbyterian ministers, roads, bridges and more. UGA College of Environment and Design professor Cari Goetcheus, an expert in historic preservation, specifically historic landscapes, studied the property since 2012, helping explore the history of the land and how past generations have used it.

“It’s been really eye opening to see and feel how every person in these families has been touched by the same place in a different way,” Goetcheus said. “It’s reaffirming that places have such an impact on people, and it’s why I choose to preserve things.”

Beech Haven has experienced considerable change over the past 120 years. In recent years, Athens-Clarke County has acquired six parcels of land on the site, and the county’s 2020 SPLOST program approved developing a master plan for a public green space. To help guide that plan, Goetcheus and her class are analyzing the property’s historic characteristics.

Double Dawg undergraduate and master’s student McKenna White clears debris from a stone walkway behind the “summer house” on the Beech Haven property. (Andrew Davis Tucker/UGA)

“UGA research on flora and fauna will help inform the user group that is developing the master plan,” said Athens-Clarke County Leisure Services Assistant Director Alex Bond.

Lucy Rowland, a family member who owns land on the site adjacent to Athens-Clarke County-owned property, said UGA students have been connected to the property for years, studying and enjoying the beautiful, wooded space. In fact, landscape architecture students even lived in the summer home at one point during spring and fall months.

“It was good, because the students were learning from people who knew the family and the property,” Rowland said. “The measurements [that Goetcheus’ students are conducting] are important for evaluating a piece of property and knowing how things were used.”

In addition to supporting the county’s planning efforts, the UGA students’ hands-on work lets them gain critical skills that supplement their classroom learning.

“I’m enjoying learning how to preserve history and present it to the public in a digestible way,” said McKenna White, a Double Dawg student who is participating in the course. “There are things in Athens that students don’t know about. I passed [this property] all the time not knowing what it was. All of the sudden we are back here, and it’s beautiful.”

Goetcheus’ research is one of many collaborations between UGA faculty and Athens-Clarke County’s Leisure Services Department. UGA researchers examine issues ranging from urban coyotes to zoo animals to water quality. Though the research topics differ, Bond noted that studies in Athens can help to inform day-to-day county management, guide future projects, or lay the groundwork to secure future funding.

These efforts support faculty scholarship, and they help prepare students for careers and life beyond college. For Goetcheus’ students, their work at Beech Haven is critical to their success in historic preservation courses as well as their future careers.

“It’s absolutely essential to their understanding of place and time,” Goetcheus said. “They can read about it and see it on maps, but until they walk that steep topography, they can’t understand the emotional connection a family has to the property.”