The McNeill House is an amazing International Style house based on plans by famed architect Edward Durrell Stone in 1937. The home would have been radically modern for a town the size of Thomson during the 1930s and still has a futuristic feel.
The builder of the home, David Armstrong McNeill, Sr. (1873-1953), was the founder, with his brother, Frank J. McNeill, of the Armstrong Box Company of Chicago, a manufacturer of wooden boxes. After a fire they moved South, first to Johnson City , Tennessee, in 1920, and to Thomson, circa 1931. In addition to his work with the box company, McNeill was a successful entrepreneur in other businesses, as well. He was also a personal friend of the famed Olympian and Tarzan actor, Johnny Weismuller.
The house remained in the family for at least three generations and may still be in their ownership. It was fully restored circa 1990 and remains one of the most iconic examples of International Style domestic architecture in Georgia.
National Register of Historic Places
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Outstanding example of that style of architecture!
Is there anything left of the Rock House which was on Nat’l Historic Register? I am a descendant of the Ansley who built it. Have not had an Ansley reunion for many years, so I have not been to Thomson.
Gloria, it’s still standing and in relatively good shape. And it’s fairly well protected and monitored, I believe.
https://vanishinggeorgia.com/2016/02/14/the-rock-house-1785-mcduffie-county/
This is great, not a style I expect in rural Georgia.
I was surprised to see this style of architecture from 1937!
Impressive!