The Milledgeville Hotel stood on this corner, built in 1858 while Milledgeville served as Georgia's capital. In 1903 Emily Norvell Hardy took over management of the hotel and moved there with her two youngest children, including eleven-year-old Norvell, who later became known to the world as comedian Oliver Hardy. After his mother left Milledgeville in 1910, Oliver Hardy remained and took a job as a projectionist at the city's first movie theater, the Palace, across the street from the hotel. At the Palace, he resolved to become an actor in motion pictures.