Lorene Veal has a short, sharp answer when asked to help pinpoint historic structures in the Friendship community of South Hall.

“You’re a little too late,” said the Buford woman and historian at Friendship Community Baptist Church.

In the past couple of years, heavy machinery knocked down century-old homes and other buildings lining Ga. 347/Friendship Road as part of a widening project taking place now between Interstate 985 and Ga. 211/Old Winder Highway.

And now there’s community fear the heritage will further erode, as the road that winds past pastures, subdivisions and the remaining older homes gets a new name in 2015: Lanier Islands Parkway.

“It’s definitely going to change. There’s no way around it,” said resident Chris Puckett, who was vocal at public hearings on the name change.

He resents the Hall County Board of Commissioners’ Feb. 28 action.

“They seem to think they can’t have progress without changing the name of the road, which is crazy,” Puckett said.

Another resident, Carol Bannister, said she is concerned longtime residents will flee “because they don’t want to live on a major highway.”

Friendship’s settlers arrived in the mid-1800s, spreading out across the fields, pastures and creeks that dot the landscape.

As it grew, the community had chicken houses, farms, a beauty shop and a school. A quarry was mined for the rock that helped build Buford Dam in the 1950s.

Later, a permanent rock quarry was established on the road and today sits in Flowery Branch.

The Hall County school system built Friendship Elementary School in 1995. Superintendent Will Schofield has said he doesn’t expect a move to change the school’s name.

Residents say they aren’t sure how the community got its name, and the origin doesn’t seem to matter to folks, as the name has broad appeal.

In addition to street signs and the church, the name can be found on businesses, subdivision signs and the old church cemetery that sits across and slightly down the road from the present-day church.

Hall County’s growth over the past couple of decades has taken place particularly in South Hall.

Ga. 347, running between Lake Lanier Islands and Ga. 211, has been at the center of the boom.

The road between Interstate 985 and Lake Lanier Islands and at the Spout Springs area of Braselton consists largely of businesses and shopping centers. Northeast Georgia Medical Center Braselton is being built on a new section of Ga. 347 near Ga. 211.

But the portion of Ga. 347 between I-985 and Spout Springs has remained mostly residential — homes and land on either side of a dusty, two-lane road.

Craig Lutz, South Hall representative on the Board of Commissioners, broached the idea of a name change.

County officials talked about consistency, as Ga. 347 between I-985 and Lake Lanier Islands already is named Lanier Islands Parkway, and how Lake Lanier serves as a major economic engine for the county.

Aside from people associated with Lake Lanier, the proposal met instant opposition as it went first before the Hall County Planning Commission.

Planners recommended denial, but commissioners voted the other way after two meetings also featuring public hearings.

A common theme expressed by residents at the meetings was the need to preserve the area’s heritage.

Ultimately, Lutz voted against changing the name between I-985 and Spout Springs, as did Commission Chairman Dick Mecum, who said, “I know a lot of the history of this community, of the heritage, and I think we have a tendency to forget who we are and where (we) come from.”

The vote still resonates among Friendship residents.

“This whole community has accepted a lot of change,” Puckett said. “We haven’t tried to stop the growth or anything, but we’d liked to have kept the name.”

Road work began this year to widen Ga. 347 to six lanes from I-985 to Dunbar (entrance to Reflections subdivision), four lanes from Dunbar to Spout Springs Road and six lanes from Spout Springs to Ga. 211.

The Georgia Department of Transportation spent $66.9 million on acquiring right of way for the project, affecting 258 parcels.

Jenny and Paul Williams escaped having that contact with the DOT, but they’re not exactly relishing the idea that more traffic may come as part of the widening.

“We’re going to have the only farm on a parkway” in Georgia, Paul Williams said.

The couple live on 95 acres, with their 121-year-old home facing Friendship Road.

The road project took away Paul’s mother’s house across the road — or where he was raised — “and it got my mother’s house,” as well, Jenny said.

“We don’t particularly like it, but what can you do about it?” she said.

Although she lives in neighboring Gwinnett County, Veals sees the Friendship community as home. The church, which traces its start to the community’s beginnings, has helped cement that closeness.

“This is my family and I’ve always been proud of them,” she said.

The new road is a bit daunting.

“I’m 85 years old. Can you imagine getting on a six-lane road just to go to church?” she said. “But I’ll be here, as long as I can get here.”