When Andrew Clyde decided to expand his successful firearms business five years ago, he knew he needed to have his own building and he wanted said building to have a unique look.
Little did he know he would be replicating a facility from Athens' colorful history — the Cook & Brother Armory, built in 1862 on the banks of the North Oconee River.
"In 2005, I decided to get my own place and build it to look like an armory should," said Clyde, who owns and operates Clyde Armory on Atlanta Highway in Bogart. "But I had no idea what an armory looked like.
"So I Googled 'armory' and saw hundreds of pictures. I finally came across Cook & Brother Armory and I knew that's what I wanted. I had no idea there had once been an armory in Athens. I decided the building wouldn't be too difficult to recreate."
Clyde's dream finally reached fruition in early May when he opened the doors of his new facility, which on the outside is a faithful recreation of the Cook & Brother Armory that operated during the Civil War just blocks from downtown Athens. Most Athenians now know the former armory as the University of Georgia's Chicopee Complex.
Previously operating in a 2,900-square-foot building on Ben Burton Drive, Clyde Armory has settled in to its new 12,400-square foot home, providing five times the space the former building had.
A grand opening celebration is scheduled that started Thursday (May 27) continues through Saturday (May 29), with a raffle for six firearms, displays from manufacturers (Clyde Armory is the largest stocking dealer for Colt firearms in the country) and an exhibit of some fascinating classic guns, including a 1895 Colt "potato digger" and one of the seven 1915 Vickers light machine guns (also known as "Woodrow Wilson" guns) that were situated around the White House during World War I. Clyde also plans to exhibit during the grand opening five of the original rifles made at Cook & Brother Armory.
"There will be some very unusual guns on display," Clyde said. "A majority of the guns are from my own collection, but some other collectors are generously allowing us to display their guns, too. We're going all-out for our folks in Athens for the grand opening."
A native of Ontario, Canada, Clyde grew up in Indiana, earned a degree in business from Bethel College and was commissioned as a naval officer in 1985 at Notre Dame. He spent 11 years as an active-duty military officer and has 24 years of active and reserve service. He taught at the U.S. Navy Supply Corps School in Athens in 1994 and moved here after leaving active duty in 1996. In 1999, Clyde earned his master's degree from the University of Georgia Terry College of Business.
As a U.S. Navy commander for the Seabees combat engineering group, he has had three tours of duty (2003, 2005 and 2008) in Iraq.
Although the new Clyde Armory has a spacious showroom for retail customers, Clyde said the company does 70 percent of its business in law enforcement and Internet sales.
And business is booming. Clyde established his company in 1991 in his garage and moved to the Ben Burton Drive location in 1999.
In 1999, Clyde enjoyed sales of $294,000 and has seen receipts increase from between 25 percent to 35 percent each year (except in 2003, when he spent five months away from the shop while in Iraq).
In 2004, sales reached $1.6 million. In 2008, the business had sales of $5.8 million and last year sales topped out at $8.5 million.
"We're not supported solely by Athens and Georgia," Clyde said. "We're supported by the entire United States. I'll sell $500,000 worth of guns to the Marine Corps this year, the U.S. Army is a customer, and in 2009 we sold $1.5 million worth of (rifles) to the state of Kansas. We're driven by law enforcement and Internet sales."
In addition, the company has created 10 new jobs with its recent move and now has 19 employees on site.
The 46-year-old Clyde said he's never been a Civil War buff, but added that learning about the Cook & Brother Armory has been an enlivening experience.
"Our building matches the Cook & Brother Armory building to the brick," he said. "We've recreated it to honor the original armory. We put a lot of time and effort into examining the only known photos of the armory when it was in operation. We've replicated the original as much as we could."
During the Civil War, British-born brothers Ferdinand and Francis Cook were assembling rifles in New Orleans until that city fell under control of Union soldiers. They opted to move their manufacturing facility to Athens and wound up in a grist mill on the banks of the Oconee River at what was known as Trail Creek.
The Cook & Brother Armory opened for business in Athens in 1862 and made as many as 600 rifles — mainly Enfields — a month until ceasing production two years later, in part because workers who had established their own Confederate regiment left town to do battle.
Through the post-Civil War years, the original building was owned and used by the textile stalwart Athens Manufacturing Co. Chicopee Mills, a division of Johnson & Johnson bought the building in 1947 and enlarged and altered the building significantly. UGA took over use of the building in the 1980s and renovated it to house the Small Business Development Center.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of Clyde's tribute to the old building is his new facility's three-story turret, the bottom floor of which serves as the new store's lobby. When customers enter Clyde Armory, they immediately see photos of what the old structure looked like during its heyday, as well as years later in 1922.
"An armory had to be a well-protected building," Clyde said. "A clear view was needed for any potential approach, which is why the turret is three stories high."
Using the only known photographs of the older armory he accessed through UGA's Hargett Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Clyde made extensive use of the images when plotting the design of his building.
"If there are any other photos of the building out there, I'd sure love to see them," said Clyde, who pointed out two floors of the tower had been removed by the time the 1922 photos were taken. We blew the pictures up and examined them in minute detail. We wanted this building to be an exact replica of the old building."
Clyde engaged a local board of advisers and then hired Covington-based Sunbelt Builders, whose other Athens projects include Landmark Hospital near Bishop Park and Ellis Pain Management on Georgia Highway 316, for design and construction services.
"We did the design and build based on Andrew's desire to have his building look like the old one," said Steve Kapp, president of Sunbelt Builders. "It was exciting to recreate Cook & Brother Armory. We spent a lot of time working with Andrew walking through the project, so we could build something to accommodate future growth. It turned out great. He's a happy client and we're happy builders."
"The original (Cook & Brother Armory in Athens) was 300 feet long, and my building is only 120 feet long, so that portion has been built to scale, but these are the exact dimensions of the turret. ... We've brought back an icon that Athens lost in 1947 when Chicopee renovated the building. A part of Athens' architectural history was lost and now it's back."