The original owners of this home stayed in an Italian villa on their honeymoon, and upon returning to Quitman, hired Neel Reid to build something of that style. The style is quite rare in rural Georgia, and an asymmetrical version such as this one is even rarer. The columns were added to give the house a Neoclassical appearance when it was purchased by Dr. Wallerstein in the early 1960s. The house is presently for sale; perhaps a serious admirer of Neel Reid’s work could buy it and remove the columns. Thanks to Chuck Ramsey, who is the listing agent for the house, for sharing the history.
Quitman Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 
Bryan,
What a neat house! I kind of like the asymmetrical design. And if I were somehow able to buy this house, I would definitely keep the columns. A house like this sort of looks like it ought to have columns like that. Even if it isn’t “architecturally pure.” But then, I’m an iconoclastic sort of fellow, myself! And don’t know much about architecture, only what I like. And I like much of what you are posting.
I have really enjoyed your series of posts on interesting buildings from all over GA. So many of them show amazing buildings in the small towns across the state where my family wholesale business had retail hardware customers for so many years. Although I know them by name, have not had the opportunity to visit that many of them in person. (Quitman, Thomasville, Meigs, etc.) You offer the obvious conclusion that, small towns out in the country though they may have been, that did not mean they lacked people of vision or taste, who used the means they had to erect structures of grace & beauty. As people of means have done over the centuries.
Thank you for doing this.
Rafe Semmes Midway/Savannah, GA