Who owns Hammonds House and how is it funded?

Former Fulton County Chairman Michael Lomax spearheaded the original legislation making the Hammonds House building, its furnishings and the art collection assembled by Dr. Otis Thrash Hammonds the property of Fulton County. When Dr. Hammonds died in 1985, Lomax, Gudmund Vigtel — the late former director of the High widely credited with transforming the museum into a regional institution — and arts patron Janet Warner Meadows wanted to keep the collection intact, Lomax said. The three approached Hammonds’ mother about turning the Victorian into a museum. The idea was always to “preserve the house as a repository for the collection. The scope was for it to be an art center where work by African American artists is shown,” he said.

According to 2019 federal tax filings, the county owns both the physical property at Hammonds House and roughly half the collection. Hammonds House pays the county $1 per year for their use. The remainder of the collection, acquired after Dr. Hammonds’ death by subsequent curators and executive directors, belongs to Hammonds House as an entity. Decades ago Fulton County would appoint two members to the board of trustees, but in recent years the practice has been abandoned. Relatives of Dr. Hammonds have also served on the board.

Though the museum gets the bulk of its budget from Fulton County, the institution has always operated on a thin margin, some years not turning a profit. In 2016, the museum reported total revenue of $140,772, but expenses were $172,468, according to federal tax filings. That same year, it reported government grants of $96,254, though it listed assets of $366,526. It’s unclear what those assets were, but there are works in the collection worth more than that alone. For example, a piece by folk artist Bill Traylor sold at Christie’s in 2020 for $507,000.