The Atlanta Journal AND CONSTITUTION SUNDAY, AUGUST 18, 1985... STEVE UP AT THE HOUSE: James Barker and his wife, Arletta, take in view from unusually shaped home. Architect's mountaintop home boasts ol out-of-this-world view By Steve Whitmire Special to The Journal-Constitution During the past three years, countless motorists driving between Canton and Cumming on Georgia 20 have seen the curious flying saucershaped structure perched atop Sawnee Mountain, Forsyth County's best known natural landmark. Many have wondered, is the miragelike unidentified stationary object the first landing of extraterrestrial tourists? Or perhaps an elaborate prop being used for a sequel to Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Architect James A. Barker and his wife, Arletta, removed the veil of mystery surrounding the enig-matic one-of-a-kind structure when they opened their unique mountaintop home to members of the Fulton County Grand Jurors' Association and state and local political figures, including former Gov.
Lester Maddox and his wife, Virginia. Guests touring the circular, glass-enclosed upper-level living quarters on a clear day are stunned by the incredible 360-degree view of one-fifth of the state of Georgia. The view stretches 70 miles to Brasstown Bald and encompasses the hazy skyline of downtown Atlanta, Stone Mountain and the sparkling waters of Lake Lanier in its entirety. Barker has been an architect since 1951 and is a partner with the Sandy Springs firm of Barker and Cunningham on Roswell Road. The firm specializes in church construction, having designed more than 400 churches including the First Baptist Church in Cumming, which can be seen from his home.
Barker hails "from Roosterville in Heard County. That's about 7.5 miles from Dashboard, Georgia." He passed through Cumming in 1961 and immediately fell in love with the high mountain located two miles from the downtown area. He bought most of the property a year later. Before starting construction on his dream house, Barker spent many hours in informal conference with Gene Bennett, who has spent the last 27 years working as a fire spotter for the Georgia Forestry Commission in the nearby Sawnee Mountain fire tower. Bennett, a local legend who lost his right arm in a cotton gin accident in 1943, lectured Barker on the harsh realities of the mountain's weather.
"I've been in the tower when the winds was blowing at 75 miles per hour. It gets perty durned cold up here, too. Got down to 20 below last winter. That narrow, winding road froze up solid. The worse thing here is lightning.
When it gets to arcing pretty smart, I just get in the middle of the tower and don't touch nothing metal. I pray a lot, too," Bennett said with a grin. Since Bennett's warning fit in well with his vision, Barker used dynamite to blast out the solid rook underground portion of his house in 1982. The underground section consists of a bar, a patio with an awesome view of the Blue Ridge Mountains and a number of "sleeping pods," each equipped with a waterbed, and fur-lined walls. "I love it down here when there is a storm outside.
We feel so secure," Mrs. Barker said. "Plus, it is surprisingly easy to keep cool in the summer and warm in winter. This portion of the house is like the Flintstones. The rest of the house is more like the Jetsons!" Barker designed the spectacular upper portion of the house, "like two horizontal bicycle wheels built using circular bar trusses.
The whole arrangement is hung from a central axle on the stem, which goes through the house from the underground section all the way to the Star Room, which is a glass observation room at the top of the house, 2,000 feet above sea level." Barker did most of the work himself, from the designing and engineering work to welding, carpentry, painting, rock masonry and applying the concrete with a trowel to give the house a stuccoed look. A trained sculptor, he used a router to chisel the family coats of arms on the front doors of the home. Barker also designed and installed the 1.5-horsepower electric elevator that connects the four levels of the house. Winding through the center of the home's spiral staircase, the elevator gives ascending passengers the illusion that they're inside a spinning top. The Barkers plan two more safety features for the futuristic home.
During a recent vicious thunderstorm, Barker saw lightning repeatedly strike the fire tower. The pyrotechnic display convinced Barker immediately bring the house up to the safety standard of the fire tower. After spending many an afternoon watching airplanes fly by below the house, Barker plans to erect two tall poles with flashing warning lights above the Star Room to avoid having uninvited visitors land in their living room. Robot cop will be a hit with kids The Associated Press MACON This police officer weighs 180 pounds and stands only 5 feet 4 inches tall, but he's not out of shape. He's also not human.
The Macon Police Department's new crime prevention robot cuts a rather dashing figure. Temporarily named Officer 384, the $14,750 machine will assist Prevention Unit officers during lectures to children and other groups, said Officer Joseph White. "Kids sometimes tend to frown when they're dealing with an adult," White said. "But when they talk to a robot, they seem to pay attention." The robot, manufactured by 21st Century Robotics in Atlanta, is equipped with a 9-inch color television monitor; video, cassette and eight-track tape players; AMFM radio; and remote control. "He does a great deal of things," said White.
Officer 384 can be operated by a police officer standing up to 100 yards away. It has its own voice, but can also relay the operator's voice. It sports a gun belt, a police hat and a badge, which Police Chief Jim Brooks awarded the recruit when it was sworn in The Associated Press new at last week's Macon City Council MAKE MY DAY, BEEP, BEEP: Officers Phillip Marberry (left) meeting. White said the robot will be and Joe White flank robot who recently joined the Macon Police taken to first- and second-grade Department. classes around middle Georgia once the school year begins.
also paying attention when he with robots, they will often tell A nursery school class visited gave them lessons on being care- robots things they won't tell Officer 384 at the Crime Preven- ful and child abuse." adults, he said. tion Unit office recently, and The robot also can be used for The new officer's numerical White said the reaction was en- other tasks. Citing a recent case name is only temporary. Burger couraging. in Alaska, White said robots have King restaurants, which donated it "The kids were really re- proven useful in helping interview to the police department, are sponding to him," he said.
"They frightened children. Because of sponsoring a contest to name the were entertained, they were the rapport children seem to have robot. Man struck by train, killed An unidentified man was identification, a police spokeskilled Saturday night when he man said. Police were called to was struck by a train on the Sea- the scene at about 9:30 p.m. board System Railroad track The train's engineer told ponear Piedmont Road and Inter- lice that he was unable to stop state 85, according to Atlanta the train in time to avoid hitting police.
the man, who was jumping up The man was carrying no and down on the track. Man charged with abducting 3-year-old An Atlanta man was charged pills were found in Jones' car. with kidnapping Saturday night Police were called to the after he allegedly abducted a 3- child's home at about 9:30 p.m., year-old girl who lives at 333 where her mother told police Angier Ave. N.E. that Jones had abducted the girl Reginald Jones, 29, no ad- in a black Toyota.
dress available, also was charged After a tipster called police with violation of the Georgia to say he heard a child crying in Controlled Substances Act. A po- a car, police located Jones and lice spokeswoman said "large the girl in a blue Mercedes a few quantities" of marijuana and blocks away, police said. Obituaries More obituaries, 21-B Actress Gale Sondergaard, 86, known for 'Spider Woman' role Los Angeles Times HOLLYWOOD Gale Sondergaard, a consummate actress whose dramatic skills brought her both the first Academy Award ever given for a supporting performance and then a succession of parts that turned her into Hollywood's reigning female villain, has died. She died Wednesday at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital, where she had been a patient since 1982. Her death at age 86 was attributed to a cerebral vascular thrombosis, which followed a series of strokes.
The actress, who became Sherlock Holmes' nemesis in "Spider Woman" also was a veteran of Shakespearean plays and America's classical theater. Before coming to Hollywood, she had succeeded Lynn Fontanne and Judith Anderson as Nina in Eugene O'Neill's "Strange Interlude" on Broadway. She first went on stage in Detroit after graduating from the University of Minnesota, where her father was a professor. She toured with traveling Shakespearean companies before coming under contract to the New York Theater Guild, once portraying Gertrude to Melvyn Douglas' Hamlet. Her second marriage to director Herbert Biberman brought her to Hollywood in the mid-1930s, where she and Walter Brennan won plaques for their supporting work.
Hers was for her Faith Paleologus in the 1936 film "Anthony Adverse." (Before that, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored only lead players with Oscars, and it was not until 1943 that supporting actors received statuettes rather than plaques.) An incident involving her husband helped destroy her career. Biberman, who died in 1971, became one of the Hollywood 10, a group of actors, writers and directors imprisoned for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, which held hearings into alleged communist infiltration of the motion picture industry as part of the so Red Scare investigations led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Called before the same committee in 1951, Miss Sondergaard took the Fifth Amendment, saying later that she was "proud to having taken a stand." At the time, she was at the apex of her career, having been nominated for another supporting Academy Award in "Anna and the King of Siam" in 1946. In it, she played Lady Thiang, the No.
1 wife of the king. Before that, she was the Empress Eugenie in "Juarez," the sinis- GALE SONDERGAARD: Had suffered from several strokes. ter Eurasian in Somerset Maugham's "'The Letter," Alfred Dreyfus' wife in "The Life of Emile Zola" and the cat in "The Bluebird." Despite the dramatic demands inherent in portraying those diverse roles, she had become familiar to the public eye as the Spider Woman, who used deadly insects to poison her victims, so she could collect their insurance policies. Of course Sherlock Holmes (Basil Rathbone) brought her to justice in that 1944 picture of the same name. However, after 35 successful films, her political posture forced her East, where she appeared in a few plays, joined the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minnesota and then, in 1965, re- established herself in a one-woman, off-Broadway show she titled simply "Woman." Four years later, she returned to Hollywood and accepted the small but significant role of the mother in "Uncle Vanya" at the Mark Taper Forum.
By then, the blacklist period had passed and she returned to the screen in "A Maniac Is Loose" and "The Return of a Man Called Horse," in which she portrayed the aged Elk Woman, opposite Richard Harris. In post-McCarthy-era interviews, Miss Sondergaard would refer fleetingly to her political troubles, sayonly that "I'm glad to be working Her survivors include a son, Daniel; a sister, Hester Delacy, and two grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are pending. Rudolph T. Watson, Gibbs Morgan Sr.
Gibbs Morgan Sr. of Peachtree newspaper employee City, a retired building contractor, Rudolph T. Watson of Clarkston, died Friday at his home. He was 60. computer for the Atlanta The funeral will be at 11 a.m.
Journal- Constitution with 16 years' Monday at Peachtree City First service, died Saturday at DeKalb Baptist Church with burial at 2 p.m. General Hospital. He was 62. CDT at Goldridge Baptist Church cemetery in Ranburne, Ala. funeral will be at 2 p.m.
Mr. Morgan was born in The RanSunday at A.S. Turner Sons with dolph County, and was an burial at Presbyterian Cemetery in Army veteran of World War II. Locust, N.C. Surviving are his wife, Mrs.
Mr. Watson was a native of Carol Harris Morgan of Peachtree Stella, City; two sons, Gibbs Morgan Jr. of N.C. Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Do- Peachtree City and Tim Morgan of ris Jenkins Watson of Clarkston; a Fayetteville; a daughter, Miss Tami son, Todd Watson of Clarkston; two Morgan of Peachtree City; two brothers, John Watson of Conyers brothers, Horace Morgan of Annisand I Clarence Watson of Westfield, ton, and Thomas Morgan of and two sisters, Mrs.
Noni Oxford, a sister, Mrs. Euna Shultz of Clearwater, and Mrs. Swafford of Villa Rica; and two Edna Duke of Cary, N.C. grandchildren. Good news close to home in EXTRA.
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