In a ‘bold move,’ Callaway Gardens cuts 11 acres of pine trees to open up views

They recently cut down a few trees inside Callaway Gardens and a funny thing happened.

You can now see the forest — and Robin Lake Beach and the ridge that runs through FDR State Park.

In an effort to enhance the 10-year-old Lodge and Spa that Callaway purchased last year, Gardens officials made the decision to cut about 11 acres of mature timber forest between the lake and the lodge. Estimates show that many of the trees were about 60 years old and were planted in the 1950s.

It wasn’t a decision that was made lightly, said Callaway Gardens President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Doyle, who succeeded Edward Callaway as head of the tourist attraction in 2015.

“It was a bold move, but it was an easy decision,” Doyle said.

Callaway Gardens was founded in 1952 as a nature preserve-style destination on former Harris County cotton land that became the reclaimed woodland gardens you see today. The property had been acquired in stages since the 1930s by former Callaway Mills Chairman Cason Callaway and his wife, Virginia.

“What we did was inspired by Cason Callaway himself,” Doyle said. “It was inspired by what he originally did at Mountain View Inn where you could see back to the water and the golf course.”

Though the purchase price of the Lodge and Spa has not been disclosed, Doyle confirmed that about $2.5 million is currently being spent to upgrade the 10-year-old facility and make it a more attractive resort destination. The 90,000-square-foot lodge has 150 rooms.

“We are trying to upgrade the resort experience,” Doyle said. “The more people who have a great resort experience, the more it will help the Gardens because all of the profit goes into the Gardens. If this goes well, we should have more money to spend on the Gardens.”

Opening up the view from the Lodge and Spa will hopefully make it more attractive, Doyle said.

The clear cutting of the trees has created a slope from the lodge to the lake. The Atlanta architectural firm Niles Bolton Associates has been hired for the landscaping project, Doyle said.

“We have hired them to help us understand what it could be,” he said.

Total cost of the project has not been determined, Doyle said, but he admitted it “would not be inexpensive.”

For now, the area will include greenspace, fire pits and hammocks in what is now a clear path between the lodge and the beach.

The Lodge and Spa are not the only areas where visitors to the gardens and the resort will notice changes this spring. Three of the original motel buildings in the Mountain Creek Inn on U.S. Highway 27 have been demolished in recent weeks.

The hotel, which was once a Holiday Inn and the largest one between Columbus and Chattanooga on Highway 27, now has 125 rooms. The recent demolition eliminated 115 rooms.

“That decision came down to investment vs. spending more money for upkeep,” Doyle said. “There is no question that the Lodge and Spa are the future of Callaway Gardens. We now own the Lodge and Spa and we didn’t need to spend more money in that area.”

There are a lot of changes going on in the gardens. One of the most historic structures, the Lodge at Blue Springs, built in the 1930s by Cason Callaway and his brother, Fuller. The Ida Cason Callaway Foundation, which also owns Callaway Gardens, has put the Lodge at Blue Springs up for sale.

“Basically, what we’ve done over the years is we have looked at non-core assets, I’ll call them,” Doyle said two weeks ago. “The home falls into that category. It’s 8 miles from the resort and the gardens, so it’s not necessarily accretive to any attendance growth at the gardens.”

The focus is on the nearly 2,500 acres inside Callaway Gardens. Recently, about $750,000 was spent to upgrade the miles of bicycle trails that run throughout the gardens.

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 4:54 PM with the headline "In a ‘bold move,’ Callaway Gardens cuts 11 acres of pine trees to open up views."