Pediment of the Singleton House, believed to be the work of itinerant carpenter S. J. Suiter
The construction of the late Greek Revival main house at the plantation of Rebecca Louise Griggs Singleton (1833-1907) and David Terrell Singleton (1831-1913) is credited, through oral tradition, to a very skilled but otherwise unknown carpenter named S. J. Suiter, who came to Putnam County from North Carolina. Suiter was still in Putnam County at the time of the 1860 census, living with the family of William Spivey and perhaps doing work on their property. To my knowledge, nothing else is known of Mr. Suiter. A Parisian plasterer lived on site for two years, creating the cornices and ceiling medallions.
Well house, dating to the ownership of the Singleton family. The Victorian details suggest it likely dates to the late 1800s-early 1900s.
The house was built circa 1854, the year of Rebecca Griggs’s marriage to David Singleton and in the National Register of Historic Places nomination in 1974 was described as “a modest, yet classically sophisticated plantation residence.” That characterization still applies. Structures added to the property by Earl McMillen, Jr., the architect who purchased it in 1968, are featured below with earlier historic structures.
Caretaker’s house, near the entrance to the farm. Likely built in the early-mid 1900s, but may be an expansion of an earlier cottage.
Rebecca Griggs Singleton purchased the property through an inheritance from her father, Robert Griggs, who owned adjoining land across Murder Creek. The Singletons bought several more large tracts in the area, and along with other plantations in the area, formed the basis in 1859 of a community first known as Avalona, and sometime between 1882 and 1895, Willard. The Singletons were members of the Avalona Baptist Church.
Covered bridge over Beaverdam Creek, built by Earl McMillen, Jr.
When Atlanta architect Earl McMillen, Jr., purchased the estate in 1968, the main house and outbuildings were all in a very run down state. As a passionate preservationist, Mr. McMillen set about restoring the house to its historical appearance, while adding modern conveniences to the grounds, He also saved and moved the old Phoenix Academy to the farm.
Covered bridge
Mr. McMillen also built a private covered bridge at a point where Beaverdam Creek crosses the property. Recent flooding caused one of the approaches to shift, but it’s still in good shape.
Tenant home converted into a hunting and fishing cabin by the Odums. Mr. Odum told me that one lady lived here most of her life, died at age 104, and climbed the steep stairs to her loft bedroom even in her old age. They’re some of the steepest stairs I’ve ever seen.
The Odums are the present owners and I am very grateful to their generosity in allowing me to visit and photograph a property that is as vibrant as it ever was. Mr. Odum is passionate about the historic structures but equally important, in keeping the land in good shape for future generations. They are doing a wonderful job.
This is the enigmatic Phoenix Academy, where Joel Chandler Harris attended school as a young man while working as a print devil for famed plantation publisher Joseph Addison Turner (1826-1868). It was saved and relocated to its present location in the mid-1970s by an Atlanta architect who owned the surrounding property, itself an historic antebellum plantation. More about that after a little background.
PLEASE NOTE: This property is not publicly accessible and trespassing is closely monitored by multiple means.
Phoenix Academy was built in the vicinity of Turnwold, northeast of Eatonton, circa 1860. The area is historically identified as Phoenix on maps. The house known as Turnwold today, the Lane-Turner House, was actually one of two on a large working plantation, the other being the older Alexander-Turner House. Joseph Addison Turner, published The Countryman, a weekly newspaper, from his property, the Alexander-Turner House. The Countryman was the only periodical ever published from a plantation during the Civil War and was widely read throughout the confederacy. His brother, William Wilberforce Turner (1830-1879), who lived in the Lane-Turner House, came up with the Turnwold name for the plantation, according to the National Register of Historic Places, and Joseph like it so much he applied to the entire property. (Turnwold means “Turner’s field”).
Union Academy, built circa 1820 by William Turner (1787-1853), the patriarch of the Turner family, originally stood on the site, but it was lost to fire*. Some time later, Phoenix Academy was built in its place. William Howard Seward, who served as Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of state, was an early rector at Union Academy. Joseph Addison Turner taught and served as president of the board of trustees for Phoenix Academy. He saw promise in a young, poorly educated Joel Chandler Harris, and encouraged him to attend school in the mornings while he apprenticed as a print devil for The Countryman in the afternoons. From his experiences among the enslaved people at Turnwold flowed Harris’s inspiration for the Uncle Remus stories. Though the Uncle Remus canon faded from popularity long before justified modern academic and social debates about controversial topics arose, mostly due to their rural subject matter and stereotypical portrayal of African-Americans, Harris remains a foundational figure in the history of Southern literature, if for no other reason than preserving the lost language of the enslaved and for his firsthand accounts of plantation life. A recent study found: Generations of Putnam County’s children, both black and white, have grown up with Harris, Remus, and Br’er Rabbit looming in the background of their lives. Yet in an age when the Harris books have fallen out of favor and Disney has permanently shelved the 1948 film version, nearly 100% of Putnam’s students engaged in this project acknowledge having never previously read a single Uncle Remus story.
*- (The date of the fire, and of the construction of Phoenix academy, is unclear; the National Register dates it to circa 1862 but also describes it as “antebellum”. I believe it may date to earlier in the 1850s and was assigned the 1862 date due to the Joel Chandler Harris association. The National Register also notes: “Over the years as the student body grew, a larger structure was constructed alongside the academy. The original Phoenix Academy became the headmaster’s residence until the academy’s closing, when it became a tenant residence. The second Phoenix School was torn down approximately ten years ago (c. 1965). Like many rural schoolhouses of the period, Phoenix Academy is of the Greek Revival style. It exhibits a pediment, pilasters with Ionic-order scrolls and molding around the door and window frames. The unusually fine application of Greek Revival details to one of the few surviving examples of rural antebellum academies in Georgia makes Phoenix Academy a unique and noteworthy structure.”).
Now, back to the story of how Phoenix Academy wound up clear across Putnam County. It’s all due to the foresight of architect and preservationist Earl McMillen, Jr. (1938-2007), who practiced in Atlanta and purchased the historic Singleton Plantation in 1968. When McMillen learned of the imminent demolition of the schoolhouse circa 1975, he acquired it from Putnam County and brought it to his property, where he painstakingly put it back together, just as it had originally stood. Its connection to Joel Chandler Harris was too important to be lost, McMillen rightfully believed. He did remove a rear wing, which had been added later in its history. It was used a rural schoolhouse well into the 20th century for children who lived in the area of Turnwold. An early 1900s photograph of Phoenix School, which the old academy was known as by then, shows that the school had a small front porch with a shed roof, but that was likely not original and was also removed by Mr. McMillen. I’m honored to be able to share these photographs, and am grateful to Dutch Henderson for the introduction, and to the Odum family for their generosity in allowing me to do so and for their continued stewardship of this important piece of Southern history. I’ll share more of their historic property in the next post.
An old shotgun store on US Highway 129 in southwestern Putnam County, long hidden by vegetation, has recently been exposed, and along with it, a hand-painted sign advertising the Hotel Lanier in Macon. The sign likely dates from the 1920s-1930s. The sides of buildings, especially stores and barns, were often used for advertising, essentially the billboards of their day. Much of US Highway 129 [sections of which were known as the Dixie Highway] was paved by the late 1920s or early 1930s, and as one of the first major improved north-south arteries in Georgia, was valuable real estate to advertisers. The Lanier House, on Mulberry Street, was considered a “crown jewel” in antebellum Macon, owned by Sidney Lanier’s grandparents. After a fire in the early 1900s, it was remodeled and renamed the Hotel Lanier, but remained a popular gathering place until at least World War II. It was razed in 1975.
This outstanding Greek Revival I-House [Plantation Plain] is located on the outskirts of Eatonton. Other than a name, information about the house is scarce. There are 9 /9 and 9/6 windows, an indicator of a much earlier date than 1875-1885, which is cited in real estate and survey listings. That date range may be when the rear addition was completed. I believe it to be 1830s at the latest, with a distinct possibility it may date as far back as the 1810s. Whatever the story, it’s one of the most important surviving houses in Putnam County, in my opinion.
For now, I’m calling this house “eclectic” because it’s a really hard one to pin down. It’s generally listed as a Queen Anne, with a build date circa 1885. I think it’s much earlier, and was built as something very different. It may just be wishful thinking.
Viewed from a perspective, there are elements of Federal architecture with a bit of Italianate influence. I believe the hip roof and the porches were a later decorative addition. I hope a friend in Eatonton can help me out. It’s a great house, but remains a mystery.
Eatonton Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
I’ve only been able to determine that the congregation at Friendship Baptist was established in the 1890s and the church was built in 1904. Apparently, it has been abandoned, but well-maintained, for quite some time. The surrounding area, just south of Eatonton proper, was once known as Warfield.
This church has a long and varied history, best detailed on the marker placed by the church and the Eatonton-Putnam Historical Society in 2001: August 29, 1807, marks the constitution date of the church, originally named Salem Baptist Church, and located on the west bank of the Oconee River on land now in Morgan Co., across the river from the Salem Community in Greene Co. Shortly before July 14, 1821, the church officers were ordered to sell the original building site and the church constitution moved to Kingston District in Morgan Co. and renamed Concord at Kingston. On Oct. 25, 1828, the church moved again, renamed Harmony, to a site offered by T. J. Davis located across the road from the present Jefferson Baptist Church. After Davis’ death clear title could not be obtained and the fourth and present site was bought April 30, 1844 from William S. Scott for $25.00. The fourth building, dedicated in April 1855, after construction costs were turned in by William Rowell Paschal in Nov. 1854, served the congregation until destroyed by fire in March 1926. The fifth building was completed in 1927. No minutes exist before Saturday, June 5, 1819, but are complete fro that date on. They tell a poignant story of dedicated and faithful members who have kept the church alive while surviving pioneer hardships, schisms over missions, the loss of members to newer lands opening to the west, the Civil War and segregation and reconstruction, economic uncertainties, national depression and migration to the cities. Many outstanding ministers including the first, John Dingler (1807), Richard Pace (1824-1837), and Asa Monroe Marshall (1860-1912) who served Harmony, Eatonton, and Ramoth for over 50 years, have stood in the pulpit here. Pioneer families associated with this church include Alford, Alliston, Batchelor, Boatright, Bryant, Cogburn, Davis, Denham, Ingram, Kilpatrick, Kimbrough, Little, Marshall, Mason, Nelson, Newman, Pace, Paschal, Reese, Scott, Tuggle, Wallace, Walton, Weaver, Wynn, Zachary and many others who lie buried in its historic cemetery.
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 