The Northeast Georgia History Center, celebrating a decade in its $4 million building on Gainesville’s Academy Street, got off to a meager beginning in an old fire station in 1981. At that time it was known as the Georgia Mountains Museum, one of the local organizations under the umbrella of the Georgia Mountains Historical and Cultural Trust. James Mathis, who with his wife, Frances, envisioned a history center and museum, persuaded city officials to allow free use of former Fire Station No.