Designer of iconic Columbus Government Center, historic preservation leader dies
Like the Columbus Government Center he designed, Ed Neal was a towering figure in Chattahoochee Valley architecture. He also was a local and state leader in preserving historic buildings.
Neal died Saturday at his Columbus home, according to McMullen Funeral Home and Crematory. He was 93.
As a founding member of the Historic Columbus Foundation, Neal helped preserve historic properties such as the Springer Opera House, Rankin House, Walker-Peters-Langdon House, Pemberton House, Goetchius House and 700 Broadway, according to his obituary.
As a founding member of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation and two-term president, he helped preserve the Hay House in Macon.
He also chaired the Columbus Consolidated Government’s Historic and Architectural Review Board.
Neal’s community involvement extended beyond architecture. He was Rotary Club of Columbus president from 1979-80. He was a charter member of Coweta Falls Chapter of Sons of the American Revolution. He served as a deacon and Sunday school teacher at First Baptist Church for more than 20 years.
“He helped change the course of this community through his encouragement to recognize beauty in our older architectural styles,” Elizabeth Walden, executive director of the Historic Columbus Foundation, told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email. “He also helped establish HCF by growing the excitement for the possibility of historic preservation in 1964 by convening Georgia’s first preservation conference here in Columbus. Ed’s fingerprints are on so many of our important buildings and on this organization through his guidance and leadership over the years. We are forever grateful for all he did for Historic Columbus.”
Neal died from natural causes, Florence Neal, the oldest of his four children, told the L-E.
“He sang happy birthday to his son in full voice in a recording, went upstairs and sat down on the sofa and was gone when his caretaker came up,” she said. “It was the best way to go.”
Florence laughed at the irony that the Columbus Government Center — the most prominent project her father designed — involved tearing down a historic building in the early 1970s: the Muscogee County Courthouse. She acknowledged he regretted the loss of such a structure.
“He tried, actually, to incorporate it into the design,” she said, “but what they needed and what they would pay for, it just wasn’t going to work.”
Across 10th Street from the courthouse, however, Neal did help save the Springer Opera House, which was going to be replaced in the mid-1960s by a parking lot until a grassroots group intervened. He also designed the previous Muscogee County School District headquarters, on the hill behind the Columbus Museum, as well as renovations of many historic houses.
“He just brought beauty into our lives and into a lot of the area of Columbus,” Florence said. “… He could find the craftsmen that still did the detailed work.”
Such a passion for architecture was evident even when Neal was a child growing up in Columbus. For example, Florence recalled this story:
During a car ride with his father down a country road, the 7-year-old Neal asked whether they could stop and see an antebellum house. He knocked on the door and told the elderly women who answered that he would like to look around inside.
“He wanted to see how things were made,” Florence said. “He just really appreciated the craftsmanship of people in the early days and still today. … If a building was going to be demolished, people would call him, and he would salvage some of the details and find homes for them or incorporate them in other projects.”
Neal was educated at Wynnton Elementary School, Columbus High School and Auburn University. He began his career with Biggers, Scarbrough, Neal, Crisp and Clark. He retired from Neal, Kendust and Murray — but didn’t stop being an architect.
“He was always thinking and working,” Florence said. “He had a bit of glaucoma and eye trouble, but he still could spot something if it wasn’t plum, if it wasn’t done right. He could tell you right away.”
According to McMullen, the family will receive friends at the home of Mr. and Mrs. E. Warner Neal Jr. on April 20 from 5-7 p.m. A celebration of life will be conducted April 21, starting at 11 a.m., in First Baptist Church. Private interment will be at Parkhill Cemetery.
According to McMullen, the family will receive friends at the home of Mr. and Mrs. E. Warner Neal Jr. on April 20 from 5-7 p.m. A celebration of life will be conducted April 21, starting at 11 a.m., in First Baptist Church. Private interment will be at Parkhill Cemetery.
This story was originally published April 20, 2021 at 11:06 AM.
