Helen Longstreet Should Have Name on Federal Building

The Federal Building located in Gainesville at the corner of Green and and Washington streets should officially be named the Helen Dortch Longstreet Federal Building and United States Courthouse. The reasons for such an action are many, and the process will not be quick and simple. If accomplished, it would be the second federal building in the United States named for a woman. It would be the first federal building named for a person whose life was devoted to a famous Confederate general.

This process can begin now if the local Longstreet Society will adopt it as a project. Garland Reynolds, a member and founder of the society, shared his knowledge of Helen Longstreet's remarkable life the The Times last Sunday. Members of the Longstreet Society should go before the Gainesville City Commission and make the request. The commission may want to old a hearing on the idea, and, if adopted, make a formal requrst to 10th District U. S. Rep. Nathan Deal.

Deal would need to enter a bill in the U. S. House that would go before the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management, which operates out of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Congressional committee hearings then would be scheduled on the request.

The federal building will be 100 years old in 2009. Helen Longstreet was able to get it built here as this mountain town entered the 20th century. At that time, the town had only just begun to put itself on the map. The local railroad depot was busy with logs and timber coming in from mountain sawmills; two new cotton mills were being built; the Baptist Female Seminary had just changed its name to Brenau College; and there was much talk about a new military academy that Gen. Sandy Beaver was building. Nevertheless, the town's streets still were mostly dirt. The new marble federal building, which opened in 1909, was a magnificent piece of architechture that left local people in deep awe. The average person never would have entered it if it hadn't housed the post office in addition to the federal court and other offices. That's where Helen Longstreet served as one of this nation's first female postmistresses.

But having the ability to get this building for Gainesville is only one small segment of her contributions to Gainesville, to the South and to this nation. She was a U. S. patriot when patriotism was not popular in the South. She fought to protect the privileges, opportunities and personal liberty of all people.

She was among the first people who recognized the need to protect and preserve the physical beauty of our mountians. She was a librarian, an author and a journalist when men filled these occupations.

Helen Longstreet never stopped in her efforts to support her husband, Confederate Gen. James Longstreet, who was 42 years her senior and died in 1904. After the war, Longstreet had renewed his friendship with his old friend and cousin-in-law, Ulysses S. Grant, and joined the Republican Party. Because of his support of the federal government, he was slandered by the South's Lost Cause Movement.

Mrs. Longstreet also never stopped in her efforts to support this country. In 1943, Life Magazine ahd pictures of the "Confederate General's Widow" working at Bell Aircraft plant in Atlanta. At the time, she was about 80 years old and was quoted as saying "I am going to assist in building a plane to bomb Hitler." She was a riveter working the 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. shift.

Helen Dortch Longstreet was not daunted by the long and loud public opposition to her activist positions concerning U.S. patriotism, civil rights and mountain protection. Today, the deep worth of her efforts can be acknowledged by naming the federal building the Helen Dortch Longstreet Federal Building and United States Courthouse. We hope the Longstreet Society soon will begin the process.