User:Mgreason/Sandbox 6

Callaway Gardens' annual budget is about $30 million.

Mountain Creek Inn was originally a 274-room Holiday Inn off U.S. 27 built in the late 1950s. Around 1980 it was purchased by CG and renamed the Mountain Creek Inn. Later, the Conference Center was created along with the Mountain Creek Ballrooms. The Longleaf Ballroom can accommodate 450-500 people; the Cypress Room holds 75-100 people; the Ironwood Courtyard seats 50-75 people. From late 2012 to early 2013 much of $2.5 million in renovations was spent to upgrade rooms at the Mountain Creek Inn. Edward Callaway said the hotel and its furnishings had grown “old and tired,” thus turning off both individual and group travelers. Read more at: https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/business/article29299423.html#storylink=cpy Renovation for the 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) Lodge conference center was scheduled to begin in late 2019 and be ready in February 2020. Three buildings were demolished eliminating 115 hotel rooms. MCinn had two swimming pools. The smaller pool sat right outside what was then called the Plantation Room Restaurant. One year, we returned and the pool was replace with a paved courtyard and a koi pond. As a kid, I asked the waitress what had happened. She responded, “I think some of the older ladies didn’t appreciate their husbands ogling over bathing beauties during their meals.” The cottages in the 1980s were a small community for families, with a teen center, pizza parlor and large pool. They had a full kitchen, BBQ grills and screened porches. However, it was two miles from the Mountain Creek Inn where many activites movies, game nights and theater productions from the La Grange College drama students were held. The original golf clubhouse became the Gardens Restaurant Callaway Gardens built a conference area and full-service restaurant near the cottages in the early 2000s. Heron, Chickadee, Robin, Thrasher, Hummingbird, Wren, Mockingbird, Whippoorwill, Bobolink, Bluebird, Upper Falls Creek, Lower Falls Creek, Mountain Creek.

Readers Digest Jeff Bogle Feb. 14, 2022 "The 43 Best Christmas Light Shows That Will Totally Wow You" https://www.rd.com/list/best-small-towns-christmas-lights/ ride through the dazzling illuminated forest and a Christmas village, and because this is a resort, you can enjoy an overnight stay, a meal, or just a few cups of cocoa. New this past year was the Magical Field of Lights, a scene set on Callaway’s 2,500 acres that is nearly two football fields long and features a Christmas tree over 10 stories tall—the tallest in the South!
 * Fantasy in Lights one of the, top 10 light displays in the world and with over 8 million lights NatGeo NovDec

http://www.trouparchives.org/index.php/manuscripts/entry/cason_j._callawaycallaway_gardens_collection1  Cason Bio https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/callaway-family/ Bio https://www.zippia.com/callaway-resort-gardens-careers-17864/history/ https://mylifeabundant.com/exploring-callaway-gardens/  https://findingfamilyadventures.com/2020/02/17/an-overnight-stay-at-callaway-gardens-pine-mountain-ga/ https://southerngardenhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Magnolia_summerfall_2008.pdf https://www.prattvilleal.gov/news/horticulture-takes-field-trip-to-callaway.html

Is Callaway Plantation related to Callaway Gardens? Peter and Elizabeth were the Great-Grandparents of Job Callaway - one of the four brothers to settle in Wilkes County and the original Callaway at Callaway Plantation. They are also the ancestors of the Callaway Gardens family as well as of Ely Callaway, Jr., the founder of Callaway Golf.

Boating
On Sunday, June 30, 1974 an incident occurred on Robin Lake when a ski boat passed close to a paddlewheel (ferry) boat. The wake splashed into the paddle wheel boat and passengers over-reacted, rushing to the opposite site of the boat, which may have been overloaded. The paddlewheel boat tipped over, spilling passengers into the lake. Few, if any persons were wearing life jackets. Other boats quickly responded and pulled people from the lake, but people drowned.PHOTO from postcard

Swimming
Two guys went into the water to assist a small boy who was struggling in Robin Lake on July 4, 2009. One of them grabbed the boy and dragged him back to shallow water. The other fellow had disappeared and his body was recovered later. Rico Cruz, a 21-year-old from Eastpoint, Georgia drowned.

Nov. 25, 2003 The Ida Cason Callaway Foundation™’s Board of Trustees announced the appointment of Edward Callaway as board chairman and chief executive officer. George P. Callaway and his wife Lynn have three children, Edward Jr., 22; Elizabeth, 20; and Sarah, 17.

Infrastructure and Services
Several small counties in North Dakota with populations of 20,000 doubled in a matter of weeks. One county commission chairman stated flatly that the oil boom was consuming all the county's resources including people, fresh water and sewage treatment capacity. Their two-laned roads were jammed with heavy 18-wheelers hauling crude oil, fracking fluid, fresh water and wastewater. An unrelenting stream, day and night, tearing up the highways. Local officials spent much of their time dealing with oil company employees or talking to state officials about how to handle the problems. For 2010 in Mountrail County, North Dakota, the average income was $52,027. That's what the workers make. Many ranchers and other landowners have oil royalty income over $50,000 each month; more than a few exceed $1 million per year. However, there are many landowners who do not own the mineral rights to their land. For them, there is no big payday every month. Inflation affects everyone including government. The price of everything rises and many local infrastructure jobs are hard to fill at salaries established prior to the oil boom.

First Generation
Casimiro Hernandez Sr. immigrated to the United States in 1905 following the Spanish-American War. He left New York City and settled with his family (including 12-year old Casimiro, Jr.) in Tampa, Florida. Across the street from their apartment was a struggling bar. The elder Hernandez saw the need for a restaurant in the fast growing neighborhood, and with the financial help of a friend, bought the building. To cater to the immigrant workforce in the cigar factories, he provided light meals and strong drinks. He began serving Cuban sandwiches, then added Spanish bean soup, which Casmiro invented. Initially, workers could get a free lunch with their purchased drinks. Later, he offered meals for $18 per month, and the business grew. By 1919 there was no room for new customers, so he knew it was time to expand. He acquired the restaurant next door, signing the owner into a partnership. The Columbia was still just a cafe, a place where cigar workers would hang out.

Second Generation
The founder's son, Casimiro Hernandez Jr. joined his father in the business in 1919 and took over operations in 1927, shortly before his father’s death in 1929. The Junior Casimiro had dreams of transforming the Columbia Restaurant into an elegant dining establishment with music and dancing. This was a bold plan because there were no similar restaurants in all of the Southeastern United States and his father was a "big spender", leaving behind a mountain of debt. A few years later, at the height of the Great Depression, the Columbia's daily receipts totaled $12.42. According to family historians, Casimiro, Jr. went down the street to the local hardware store and purchased a hammer and nails. He returned to the restaurant and gathered the entire staff around him. Waving the hammer and nails, he warned them, "Another $12-day, and I nail up the dam joint!"

Fortunately, better days followed, and in 1935, Casimiro, Jr. was ready to turn his dream into reality. Unfortunately, he had no capital, so he convinced the local banker to make a $35,000 expansion loan. The banker agreed--sealed by a gentleman's handshake! That year, construction began on the first air-conditioned dining room in Tampa, including an elevated dance floor. It opened on Thanksgiving day and was named the Don Quixote dining room, for Casmiro Jr.'s hero. It was immediately successful, so two years later, the Patio dining room was completed. It resembled courtyards found in Andalucia in southern Spain, and contained a mosaic tiled fountain, marble floors and 30 ft-high palms, surrounded by a second floor balcony. A retractable glass skylight added natural light and fresh air during the day.

Third Generation
Cesar Gonzmart was born in Tampa and knew the Hernandez family growing up. In 1935 at age 15, Cesar earned $20 a week substituting in the Columbia's band before he went off to college. By his mid-twenties, he had a doctorate in music from the University of Havana in Cuba and traveled around the world serving as concert violinist, earning $75,000 per year, and played with his orchestra, Cesar Gonzalez and his Magic Violins.

Meanwhile, Adela Hernandez, the strikingly beautiful granddaughter of Columbia founder Casimiro Hernandez Sr. had graduated from the Juilliard School of Music in New York City and became an accomplished concert pianist who also traveled the world with leading orchestras. Notably, Adela played at Carnegie Hall.

The two reunited and married in 1946. After the wedding, Cesar and Adela Gonzmart performed and traveled the country together, but in 1949, their first son, "Casey" arrived. It was difficult to be a family raising a child while staying in hotels, cooking on hotplates, and being on the road. In 1953, Adela's ailing father convinced his son-in-law to learn the restaurant business and settle down with the family. Cesar started working with Casmiro Hernandez, Jr. at the Columbia for $150 per week, one tenth of what he had been earning. Cesar accepted the reduction in income gracefully, knowing that their family life would be much better. The following year, their second son Richard was born. Although he traded his career as a musician for one as a restaurateur, Cesar Gonzmart regularly serenaded his guests. Cesar learned the business quickly, and he and Adela began to have input in the decisions of the Columbia. In 1956, they convinced Casmiro to build another large room, the Siboney dining room, named after a town in Cuba where American forces landed in the Spanish-American War (also the name of a song by a Cuban composer). They also supported the opening of a second restaurant in Sarasota in 1959, which did very well.

During the 1950’s & 1960’s, Tampa’s Ybor City again experienced economic decline. Many of the cigar factories, which once numbered 200, closed, but the Columbia again remained open. During that span of time, some of the world’s greatest Latin music and dancing talent performed at the Columbia, many of whom were friends of Adela and Cesar from back when they were performing on tour. When Adela's father died in 1961, Cesar and Adela were faced with the same kind of debts that her father did when her grandfather died. Eventually, the economy improved and the debts were paid, but almost 25 years passed before the next expansion occurred.

Fourth Generation
Cesar Gonzmart’s son Richard turned down a Michigan State University football scholarship and a likely professional football career to follow in his father's footsteps. His father responded by sending Richard to Spain with an American Express card and instructions "to learn the restaurant business by eating out every night." Richard earned degrees from the University of Madrid and the University of Denver and served as President and CEO of Columbia Restaurant Group. His brother Casey pursued culinary studies in Europe, apprenticing at several restaurants in Paris and in Geneva & Lucerne, Switzerland. Casey also studied Spanish cuisine at the University of Madrid and heads recipe development, food production and staff training. Richard & Casey Gonzmart joined the day-to-day management of the Columbia in the late 1970s.

Cesar and Adela waited until their sons were educated and married before embarking on an aggressive plan of growth. With Richard and Casey capable of managing restaurants by themselves, they successfully opened units in St. Augustine (1983), St. Petersburg (1988) and Clearwater (1989).

When Cesar died in 1992, the Columbia Restaurant Group was financially sound. The year Gonzmart left the music business, the Columbia grossed $1 million. In 1991, just before his death, the chain earned $42 million. A restaurant in Disney's Celebration community was opened in 1997 and is doing well. A unit in West Palm Beach opened in 2005, but closed in April, 2008 after sales failed to meet the expectations of Columbia management and company executives had differences with the property managers.

Fifth Generation
Adela Hernandez Gonzmart died in 2001, ending the third generation of ownership, but between 1996 and 2007, three of her grandchildren joined the Company full-time, with more to follow...

A brand new, 5000+ ft² kitchen was built in 2001 at the Ybor City location. Florida's oldest restaurant was given the most modern, state-of-the-art kitchen available. The facility was constructed on space used for a parking lot/delivery area on the south side of the restaurant to avoid disuption of operations.

The first new dining rooms built at the Ybor City Columbia since 1956 were completed in 2004 in the space that housed the old kitchen. The Familia de Casimiro was named in honor of Richard & Casey’s great-grandfather (founder of the restaurant) and is designed to resemble a Spanish wine cellar, with space for private meetings. The Andalucia was named for the most populous and the second largest community of Spain. Both these projects were part of a $6.5 million renovation to prepare the restaurant for its Centennial in 2005. Other completed projects included state-of-the-art restrooms for men & women (with sensor-controlled fixtures), refurbishing the existing dining rooms, new wine cellars (to house their inventory of more than 50,000 bottles), and a new, energy-efficient air conditioning system.

The Sarasota restaurant will celebrate 50 years at that location in 2009, while the St. Augustine location has been in operation for 25 years in 2008.

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Coordinates: 26.318659, -80.120066

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