Grandview Summer Colony, Lodge and Pleasant Valley Lake: (1926-1933)

Before Grandview Lake, or the Salvation Army Camp existed, for a brief time Grandview Summer Colony was a burgeoning place to relax during the warmer months.

In 1927, H.E. “Cy” Hawkins, a former minor league baseball pitcher in Carrolton, Georgia bought a bunch of land near where present-day Grandview Lake is. Cy was the salesman and brains of the operation and his brother (Ira) Tanner was the builder. Cy and his brother Tanner became land developers. They bought up much of land near our present-day Grandview Lake area(Between Champion Creek to the west side of Sharptop Mountain and north to Upper Grandview Lake Road.) and divided it into one and five-acre plots.

An ad from Ira Tanner Hawkins in the Pickens Progress circa early 1930-1933

Note - In the ad above, Grandview Road is refered to as the Tate Mountain Estates Road. This was before 136 was built and paved. If you go back to the late 1800s, the road currently known as Windy Ridge was the primary way to the Tate Mountain Estates along the west side of Sharptop Mountain.

They sold the lots around their newly named resort area, The Grandview Summer Colony, and built a lodge. They created Pleasant Valley Lake in 1927 by damning up a stream. It was 15 acres in size and 25 feet deep at its deepest point. They stocked it with government fish (black bass) brought in from Warm Springs, Georgia. They also built a number of small cabins around the area that would come with the acre-sized parcels.

A typical cabin in Grandview Summer Colony made from small hardwoods

When Grandview Lodge was nearly finished Cy arranged for a great chef to work at the lodge and to prepare exotic meals for people. Cy began advertising in the Pickens Progress, and offered free stays at the lodge with meals included in an attempt to entice people to buy the surrounding lots. He created a series of postsized cards that showed various features of the colony along with their prices. His office was located where present-day Pappa's is on the corner of Georgianna Street and East Church St. (the same location as the former Mary Ann’s, and before that, an Arby's.)

Cy's office, now gone, at the site of Pappa's pizza on Old Hwy 5

The Lodge was astonishing. It opened officially on July 14, 1928. Three stories high, twenty-rooms, French windows, electricity, running water and beautiful view of the Blue Ridge and Sharp Top Mountain.

Like many ventures that happened near or during the Great Depression, Grandview Summer Colony went belly up.

In an ignominius move, in 1933 Cy and Tanner packed up their belongings and left. They didn’t pay their workers and owed various people in the area money. They had sold some lots over and over again and left it up to the owners to work out who were the real owners. By 1933 many lots were given over to Henry Forrest by way of a Sheriff’s Sale.

Seven years later, Tanner Hawkins died of congestive heart failure in 1940. His brother, the former pitcher and charismatic Horace Emmett Hawkins, a.k.a. Cy, was found dead in 1953 outside of an Elks Club in Miami. The local Floridians knew he was homeless, but had no idea of his former life, both the good and bad.

Clipping from February, 1953