Built by Job Callaway to replace the family’s first dwelling (akin to the log cabin seen in previous post), this Federal Plain-style house was home to the Callaway family until 1869, when the larger plantation house was constructed. Originally located across the highway on the site of the Washington-Wilkes County Airport, it was moved here in the 1960s. It’s furnished with period antiques today.
National Register of Historic Places
Originally located on Mark Heard’s land between Sandtown and Danburg, this cabin was removed to the Callaway Plantation to replace the original Callaway cabin of the same era that burned down while in use as a kitchen for the Grey House. It’s typical of late-18th-century pioneer housing on the Georgia frontier.
National Register of Historic Places
The LaFayette Masonic Lodge No. 23, F. & A. M. (Columbian Chapter No. 136 RAM) was chartered in 1842. The lodge appears to have been built as a church, though I’ve seen photographs from the early 1930s that indicate it’s been a lodge for nearly a century, at least. The old light globes on the front porch are something rarely seen anymore.
Designed by Frank P. Milburn, with Richardsonian Romanesque influence, Washington’s historic courthouse is one of the most unique in the state. Washington has been the county seat of Wilkes County since 1784, and was the first city in the United States named for the future first president. It’s amazing in such an early county that this would only be the second courthouse to be constructed, but the first, built in 1785, was in use until the present one was completed.
National Register of Historic Places
Sharing the Washington town square with the Confederate monument is this unique memorial to the African-American veterans of the Revolutionary War, dedicated in 2012. It’s estimated that over 5,000 black patriots served in the Continental army and though efforts have been made to place a similar remembrance in Washington, D.C., this is thought to be the only such work of this scale and prominent placement in the country. The bust is meant to represent the best known black patriot of Georgia, Austin Dabney. Dabney and his owner, Richard Aycock moved from North Carolina to Wilkes County in the late 1770s and to avoid service himself, Aycock sent Dabney to serve in his stead. He was present at the Battle of Kettle Creek on 14 February 1779, among Georgia’s most important engagements in the war. Dabney was granted his freedom, as well as land in Wilkes County and a pension in reward for his service. As there is no contemporary image of Dabney, sculptor Kinzey Branham used an image of James Armistead Lafayette, a better-known African-American patriot who also gained his freedom after the war.
After Washington’s Great Fire of 11 June 1895, which devastated much of the business center of the city, brothers John and Thomas Fitzpatrick returned to their hometown from Lancaster, South Carolina, where they had operated a thriving dry goods business. They soon began building this hotel on property their family had owned since 1843. Golucke & Stewart were the architects.(J. W. Golucke was the most prolific architect of governments in Georgia history). The brothers used the lobby to display dry goods and groceries in promotion of their more lucrative enterprise . In 1899, the business was grossing $100,000 annually. The first telephone system in Washington was installed here and preceded the Fitzpatrick’s ownership of the county’s first telephone company. John died in 1907 and Thomas in 1911. After the their deaths, the hotel would later be known as the Columbus Inn and the Washington Hotel and was finally closed in 1952. After many years of neglect, it was restored and reopened by Jim Carter and Mike & Christy Todd.
National Register of Historic Places
Washington Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This was originally Washington’s Opera House and was also used as the Washington Loan & Banking Company. Thanks to Amber Brooke Jordan for the identification.
Washington Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Washington Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Located in the 1930 Lowe Building, Poss Ace Hardware is an amazing survivor, a reminder of the days when every small town had one or two local hardware stores. The old Ford truck was an added bonus.
Washington Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places