Gift to bring café to Griffin campus

A historic structure at the heart of the University of Georgia Griffin campus will undergo a $1 million renovation thanks to a gift from the Dundee Community Association:

The nearly 100-year-old facility, which once housed mules that pulled plows and other farm equipment, will be repurposed into a café that will connect students and the surrounding community with the history of Griffin and Spalding County. The 3,900-square-foot Dundee Café at the Mule Barn is scheduled to open in summer 2018 in the historic structure near the campus student learning center.

The $1,023,000 gift will completely cover the cost of the renovation, which will create the first dining facility at UGA-Griffin and support a key pillar of the university's Commit to Georgia campaign, enhancing the learning environment.

"As the second-oldest structure on campus, the Mule Barn represents a part of Georgia Experiment Station and University of Georgia history that will be preserved and cherished thanks to the generosity of the Dundee Community Association," said Lew Hunnicutt, assistant provost and campus director at UGA-Griffin. "It will be the center and heartbeat of the academic quad, serving students and members of the Griffin/Spalding County community as well."

UGA-Griffin offers an Interdisciplinary Studies A.B. degree with concentrations in psychology and sociology, and thus includes Franklin College faculty, students and staff. The 33,000-square-foot student learning center opened in 2009, a state-of-the-art learning faciltity that benefits the campus and community. But the campus still needed an informal gathering space that serves food (particularly coffee, of course) and the transformation of the Mule Barn is an excellent solution that will also celebrate the history of the experiment station. We are grateful to the Dundee Community Association for this important addition to the Griffin campus for students, facuty and staff.

Image: Griffin campus with student learning center and Mule Barn (foreground, on right).