“Save Rumble” Rally Held in Warner Robins

WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A group dedicated to saving a piece of Warner Robins history met Thursday night to rally support for its cause.

To some people, the former Rumble School in Warner Robins is just an old building, but to others, it’s a part of the city’s history.

“It was the first secondary education facility built in this end of the county in the late 1940s,” says Jim Elliott, one of the event’s organizers.  “(It’s) rather utilitarian in design but it is what it is, and I mean, it was a town that was not expected to survive very long.  It just represents a little bit of history; we don’t have much of that here.”

The school currently serves as Houston County’s Alternative School, but the board of education has plans to tear it down in 2014.  The board says the old building costs too much to operate.

Thursday night, “Save Rumble,” a group that wants to keep the building standing, shared their memories from the school.

“I went to the school,” says Wayne Lowe.  “(I) transferred here from Hawkinsville, Georgia, and all my children went to this school and graduated.”

But if plans to take the building down go through as scheduled, some fear future generations won’t get the chance to see the old school.

“Tearing buildings down is not a way to honor our children and generations ahead of us,” says Marsha Buzzell, Executive Director for the Warner Robins Convention and Visitors Bureau.  “They won’t know who we are and who we were unless we maintain all of this.”

A few of the school board members were in attendance at the rally but declined to go on camera.  They told us they were just there to listen.

For more information on “Save Rumble,” check out the group’s Facebook page.