Pompey’s Chapel Baptist Church is an historic African-American congregation in southern Wilkes County, founded by freedmen in 1870. The original church, believed to have been built circa 1879, has been expanded, though it retains much of its traditional character. A well-maintained cemetery is located adjacent to the churchyard and a one-room structure is located behind the church. I believe it may have been a schoolhouse, as was a common practice among Black churches in this era, but I cannot confirm that at this time.
This Greek Revival landmark is the center of a large historic property near downtown Washington. The original house was built circa 1854 and has been expanded at least twice since the 1870s. Originally known as The Pines, for its sylvan location, it was built by Robert Shand Smith (1815-1887). Smith was a gentleman farmer who had about 75 acres but wasn’t dependent on agriculture for income. He was a notable presence in the Washington Methodist Church. After the deaths of Robert Shand Smith and his wife, Susan Dart Smith (1805-1880), their son, Robert Motte Smith (1849-1923) inherited the property. Their heirs sold it to Dr. Carlton W. Hearn and family in 1967. It has been beautifully maintained and is a great example of an antebellum Greek Revival house in Georgia.
The appearance of this house is more Neoclassical than Greek Revival, but it is said to have originated as a raised Greek Revival townhouse. It is associated with Jesse Mercer; an historical marker notes that the most famous Georgia Baptist of the 19th century lived here, but it would have been for a very short time, as the house dates to circa 1840 and Mercer died in 1841. This bears further research and investigation. Since I’m not clear on the Mercer connection, I’m identifying it as the Nicolas Wiley House, since Mr. Wiley was responsible for the present appearance of the structure. He added the colonnade and its custom-made Corinthian capitals which aesthetically define the house today [detail, below]. The street on which the house is located is also named for Mercer.
Later owners were Thomas Heard, in the 1880s, and Mary Callen in the 1890s. Mrs. Callen had the house lowered and modernized, adding electricity and indoor plumbing. Edwin Anderson bought the house in the 1940s or 1950s. It is presently for sale.
Washington Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This home was originally located nine miles west of Washington, near Beaverdam Creek, and was moved to town in 1838. It is believed to date to the first decade of the 19th century and could be even slightly earlier than that. I will update when I learn more.
Washington Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This exceptional Colonial Revival was the home of Dr. Addison Wingfield Simpson (1875-1963), who practiced medicine in Washington for 60 years. His son, Dr. Addison Wingfield Simpson, Jr. (1907-1967), himself a practicing physician for 27 years, inherited it upon his father’s death. He only outlived his father by four years.
Washington Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Also known as the Ficklen-Lyndon-Johnson House, Holly Court is somewhat typical of the grander townhouses of 19th century Georgia, in that a “marriage” of structures led to its present appearance. The lot on which it’s located was owned from 1817-1830 by Bill Hoxey [born circa 1789], a free man of color from the Savannah area who was an accomplished carpenter. He was also a deacon of the Washington Baptist church, serving the Black members. It is believed that part of the original structure built on the lot by Hoxey circa 1825 has been incorporated into the house. Mr. Hoxey sold the property to William L. Harris in 1830. Laws of the day apparently prohibited even free Blacks from selling property so that was handled by Hoxey’s trustee, Lewis Brown.
Harris spent only three years at the property, selling it to Lock Weems in 1833. Improvements to the house were made by Weems before he sold it to his mother-in-law, Mary Shepherd, in 1836. Dr. Fielding Ficklen, Jr., (1801-1869) purchased it in 1837 and made further improvements. He enlarged it by moving and attaching another structure, which is now the front elevation, from his farmland about seven miles outside town. [Mrs. Jefferson Davis and her children stayed in the home in 1865, awaiting the arrival of her husband after the fall of Richmond]. Upon his father’s death in 1869, Dr. Joseph Burwell Ficklen (1830-1886) occupied the house. It is believed that his wife, Julia Weems Ficklen (1843-1925), was responsible for the fine landscaping that became a defining feature of the property.
In 1890, George Edward Lyndon (1845-1927), who later served as Washington mayor, bought the property from the Ficklen heirs. After Lyndon’s death in 1927, the house was owned by a relative, Andrew Lyndon. It sat empty for quite some time but served as the location for a mattress production project of the Works Progress Administration [W.P.A.] during the 1930s. Rochford Johnson (1897-1960) bought the house in 1939 and his wife, Elizabeth Barksdale Johnson (1897-1985) gave it the name Holly Court.
This iconic Washington home was given to the State of Georgia for use as a house museum in 1957 and ownership was eventually returned to city. It has served as the Washington Historical Museum for many years and many consider it to be one of the best small-town museums in the state.
Built by Albert Gallatin Semmes circa 1835, it was originally a much simpler vernacular house, of the saltbox style. Semmes did not live in Washington for long, leaving for Florida in 1836. The house was sold to Mary Sneed in 1836. Georgia’s first Railroad Commissioner and an editor of the Augusta Chronicle, Samuel Jack Barnett, Jr., purchased it in 1857 and enlarged and gave it its present appearance. His heirs sold it to William Armstrong Slaton in 1913 and he owned it until his death in 1954.
Most of the old roadside motels that proliferated in the post-World War II years are long gone, but they once numbered in the thousands all over the country. Occasionally, their old signs can still be found and have taken on landmark status all their own. Washington has two of these signs: the Angus Motel, and this one, the Red Land Motel. Amazingly, the Red Land, while modernized, is still in business.
This annotated history is from their website: …Walton and Joanne Hardin built the Red Land Motel. The amenities in motels were spartan back then, but no expense was spared at the Red Land. [It] boasted of refrigerated air conditioning, private bathrooms in each room-equipped with showers, and each room was carpeted. Opening for business in 1952, the Red Land Motel quickly became a local landmark, and took her place in American history as a roadside motor lodge.Over the next 25 years…two of the original buildings were torn down, so as to make room for a pair of new two-story buildings…
The Red Land Motel borrows her name for famous (or infamous?) Georgia Red Clay. Among the locals there is a love-hate relationship with red clay. However, when one of our own moves away, they always know home is close by when the hills on the roadside have that familiar red hue.
Though it may have been associated with other businesses over the years, I’m guessing this is best remembered by the company whose name is on this ghost mural, Washington Wholesale Grocer.
Washington Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 