During my first year at Georgia College, I lived in the then-derelict Ennis Hall, directly behind this enigmatic literary landmark. Flannery O’Connor’s mother, Regina Cline O’Connor (1896-1995), well into her nineties, still lived here then. The house was in a much worse state of repair at the time. Apparently, it was built by a General Gordon around 1820. During the mid-1830s it was rented to the State of Georgia for use as a temporary Governor’s Mansion, and was later owned by Flannery O’Connor’s matriarchal ancestors, the Clines. At some point in its early history it was the victim of a fire, though I’m unsure about the chronology.

In his seminal work Architecture of Middle Georgia: The Oconee Area, John Linley states: The house is not one that can be judged architecturally. No doubt it was finer and more stately before the fire and subsequent changes…

Milledgeville Historic District, National Register of Historic Places