Georgia Magazine - April 2023 - 20

Curious GEORGIA
By Kathy Witt
Hapeville landmark rocks on,
with and without worries
I
t's what the future King Arthur bested, congregations sing about and
Charlie Brown lamented. A rock. But this isn't any old rock. This is a
rock that just may cure what ails you.
The Hapeville Worry Rock is a 6-foot-long granite slab on the grounds
of the Hapeville Depot Museum and Visitor Center, which in turn sits on
the grounds of the 1890 railroad station in a building constructed a year
before the city was chartered.
" The museum has been in the building since 1980, " says Charlotte
Rentz, president of the Hapeville Historical Society and director of the
museum. " So the rock has always been part of the depot's story, and the
depot is a significant part of the museum's story. "
With the whole of Hapeville on the National Register of Historic Places
in honor of its role in the transportation industry, it's not a stretch to
consider the Worry Rock historic as well.
The Worry Rock was placed on the depot grounds in December 1937,
a publicity stunt dreamed up by either Brown Tyler, publisher of The
Fulton County Review, or Courtland Gilbert, its editor. (History seems a
bit muddled on this point.) The goal? To thrust the tiny town of Hapeville
into the national spotlight by publicizing the rock as a centralized spot
where worriers could ponder their problems and work out solutions. In a
December 1937 story in The Atlanta Constitution, Gilbert said the intent of
the rock was to keep the city's many worriers in a specific location so that
non-worriers could move about freely, undisturbed.
Whether the rock helped alleviate any worries or not, it did achieve
the goal of drawing attention to Hapeville. The rock quickly gained renown
across the United States, including in Hollywood.
On Dec. 26 of that year, The Atlanta Constitution published a letter that
leading lady Joan Blondell had written to Gilbert in response to his
invitation for her to come worry in Hapeville. The star of TV shows and
movies wrote that her days of worrying on a rock began in childhood.
" To me, a rock seems to be ideal, " Blondell penned. " It is so hard that
there is no danger that the worrier will fall asleep and leave the worrying
undone. It is solid enough to give one a sense of underlying security. "
On Jan. 1, 1938, the Worry Rock was dedicated, an auspicious occasion
presided over by none other than then-Gov. E.D. Rivers, whose photograph
was snapped while he struck a worried pose on the rock.
Several days later, a man accused of " liquor excesses " was sentenced
to pay a $10 fine or sit on the rock-without a pillow-and worry for two
hours, as reported by Pennsylvania's Altoona Tribune, one of many newspapers
that helped keep the Worry Rock in national headlines for weeks.
He chose to worry.
The Worry Rock even had a self-appointed " unofficial worrier for
everybody " in local painter-carpenter Bill Ward, who took up the post on
Jan. 8, 1938. Ward brooded on behalf of all who sent their worries via letter
to The Atlanta Constitution, as noted in a Jan. 9 article titled " Cold Weather
Worries Worrier As He Tries to Worry for Others. "
Less than 10 years later, the Worry Rock seemed all but forgotten.
An article on Sept. 30, 1946, in The Atlanta Constitution noted that the
rock's surroundings had grown " shabby with disuse. "
20 Georgia Magazine April 2023
Charlotte Rentz sits on Hapeville's legendary Worry Rock
and holds a 1947 photograph of the historic Hapeville
Post Offi ce with the rock in the foreground.
Calling the rock " a lonely spot these days, "
reporter Howell Jones mused, " In retrospect, it is
difficult for one to conceive of problems weighty
enough to cause mental anguish back in those lush,
prewar days when food and family were man's only
concern-but worry people did, and so Worry Rock
was dedicated to their folly. "
Not as many worry now, either, according to
Rentz-a situation she hopes soon will change. The
museum, which closed during the pandemic and its
aftermath, has reopened with regular visiting hours.
" The Worry Rock has its own special place and
will soon be getting a special plaque, " she says.
Kathy Witt is a freelance writer based in
Kentucky.
When you go
The Hapeville Worry Rock, Hapeville Depot Museum
and Visitor Center, 620 South Central Ave., Hapeville;
(404) 669-2175. Open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays
through Saturdays.
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