McDonald House Hotel Avoids Burning as Did Arnold, Roddenberry, and Central House

Photo shows B. G. McDonald's McDonald House Hotel on Folkston's Courthouse Street, now Main Street as it looked before the 1920s. McDonald's hotel was the sole survivor of Folkston's early hotels. The Arnold burned twice and the Central House and Roddenberry Hotel fell victim to fires.

It was 1914. America was still a neutral nation. World War One was a couple of years away. B. G. McDonald announced he was building a third hotel near the Folkston railroad depot. The Central House and Arnold stood imposingly across the street from McDonald's lot. Another hotel, the Roddenberry had been destroyed by fire that had, at one time or another, threatened most of the homes and commercial buildings in Folkston.

McDonald decided to build his hotel of white pressed brick, a radical innovation at the time. The other hotels were either red brick or wooden structures.

At the same time, the town of Homeland boasted of its Palmetto Hotel, a giant structure in the center of the city. All the successful hotels in those days were built near railroad depots, although Homeland's Palmetto Hotel was located a couple of blocks from that town's railroad depot.

Tom Wrench, the colorful editor of the Charlton County Herald called McDonald's announcement "a monument to a booster's faith in Folkston. No one quarreled with Wrench's statement.

McDonald was born in Ware County but settled in Folkston in 1884. In 1895, the same year Folkston was chartered, he married Lucy Bernice Lang, daughter of a prominent pioneer family of Charlton County, the Felder Langs. McDonald was named the first Mayor of Folkston in legislation that created the city. In addition, he was known throughout South Georgia as one of the state's most astute businessmen.

The three hotels became the hub of activity in Folkston, but it was McDonald's hotel that set the fashion standards for women of the town. A ground floor department store regularly imported ladies fashion experts to alert the ladies of the town of the latest fashions. Ben McDonald's store stocked the most modern shoes, dresses, and ladies hats.

The Central House Hotel fell victim to a fire that destroyed the two-story frame hotel, and Ben Scott's Arnold Hotel twice was destroyed by fire. The second fire saw Scott only rebuild the ground floor.

Ben McDonald's hotel escaped the fires, standing stately and majestically through those years of the fires.

In 1954, Charlton County was to celebrate its 100^th birthday with a Centennial celebration. McDonald's daughter, then Martha Grace Bragg opened her father's long-closed store to the public so they could buy high-button shoes, 1920-era ladies hats, bustles, and most other merchandise fashionable at the turn of the century. The show window in McDonald's ground floor store displayed clothing popular in the early 1920s. The inventory was quickly disposed of, to appear on Folkston's Main Street during the Centennial celebration adorning the bodies of some of the county's ladies.

The fact that the McDonald Hotel escaped fire damage is largely attributed to the close supervision of McDonald of his fireplaces and his cigarette smoking hotel guests. He refused to see his hotel go up in flames, as did the others.

That hotel still stands today. The railroad depot moved two blocks north in the 1930s, but when the railroad closed the depot, the City of Folkston moved it back south onto its original lot and restored it for public use.

McDonald was one of the founders of the Citizens Bank in 1912, a county judge and Charlton County Commissioner as well as Folkston Mayor and Alderman.

His hotel and his faith in the growth of the City of Folkston and Charlton County never diminished. Until his death, he continued to promote his adopted hometown: a town that he had helped incorporate and a town where he served as its first Mayor.