This is another fine example of the Greek Revival cottage style so popular in antebellum Columbus. Like its neighbor, in the previous post, it has been expanded over time and has had decorative elements added, but to no detrimental effect.
Columbus Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This cottage has been expanded at the rear section, but retains its historic integrity. It’s one of my favorite houses in Columbus, though I have been unable to locate any history beyond an approximate date of construction. The ornamentation is a stylistic addition, likely done 20-40 years after the house was built.
Columbus Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Richard Rose Goetchius (1814-1875) came to Columbus from New York in 1834 and quickly established himself as a prominent builder and architect. He built this grand Greek Revival cottage as a gift for his wife, Mary Ann Bennett Goetchius (1819-1878), upon their marriage in 1839. It originally stood at 11th Street and 2nd Avenue but was moved circa 1970 to save it from commercial development.
All six of the Goetchius children, five sons and a daughter, were born in the house. The two eldest sons died in the Civil War. Another son died in early childhood. One son became a Columbus lawyer and another a Presbyterian minister. Their daughter, Mary Goetchius McKinley, died in childbirth, and her daughter Mary McKinley Wellborn, eventually inherited the house. It remained in the family until 1969.
It has been completely restored by its new owners, who have transformed it into a popular gourmet restaurant.
National Register of Historic Places
This house did not originate as an octagon house, but rather as a small cottage built circa 1830, now incorporated into the present structure. Until 1857, it was owned by Alfred Iverson, Sr. (1798-1873), a native of Liberty County and Princeton-trained lawyer who later served in the House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate, and his wife, Julia, the daughter of Georgia governor and future U.S. Secretary of State John Forsyth.
The property was purchased by contractor and cabinetmaker Leander May in 1862. May added the octagonal front to the existing Iverson cottage, and then transformed the original structure into an octagon, creating a double octagon house. Neighbors found it it odd and dubbed it May’s Folly, or simply The Folly. Octagon houses were a short-lived Victorian craze that never fully caught on, making them rare as hens’ teeth today. The rear section was returned to a rectangular form at a later date, but a 1968 fire confirmed that May had made it octagonal, as well.
Though it is often claimed to be the only double octagon house in the nation, there are apparently a few others, depending on how the term is defined. Still, it is an exceedingly rare form, and it’s the only residential property afforded National Historic Landmark status in Columbus.
National Historic Landmark
Columbus Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This house was located at the corner of Front Avenue and 8th Street, overlooking the Chattahoochee River, until 1969, when it was moved to its present site by the Historic Columbus Foundation. Little of the early history of the house is known; it was purchased by saloon keeper Francis Marion Bagley (1845-1903) around the turn of the 20th century.
Columbus Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This Greek Revival cottage is thought to have been built for John Spencer Roberts, the founder of Georgia Webbing & Tape, an early Columbus industrial concern, though further information on Mr. Roberts or his company has not been easy to locate. By 1896, it was home to Joseph Hecht (1844-1917) and Adele Kober Hecht (1859-1920). The Hechts were Austrian Jews who came to Columbus in the 1860s and later established Hecht’s Candy Company, a successful wholesaler.
It’s been home to Charles E. Huff’s International Funeral Home for many years.
National Register of Historic Places
The Cedars was built for Col. John Banks (1797-1870) in 1837. It got its name from the cedar trees which lined the long driveway that led to the house from the old Wynnton Road. The floor plan consisted of eight rooms with a hall running the length of the house. A dirt-floored basement, entered from the outside, was used as the slave quarters. The main house was built of handmade deep rose colored bricks covered with stucco. This was marked off in large rectangles to resemble blocks of stone. The four Ionic columns on the front portico are stuccoed brick. The roofline was changed in 1885, elevating a much flatter original configuration.
A prominent attorney, John Banks was a native of Elbert County and a pioneer settler of Columbus. His obituary in the 24 September 1870 edition of the Atlanta Constitution noted: “For a while he was a grocery merchant in Augusta, the firm name being Banks & Baird. He has resided near Columbus over thirty-five years, and was engaged in various business in this city – grocery, banking, manufacturing, besides farming extensively – and accumulated a large property, much of which escaped the casualties of war.”
According to the nomination form of this property to the National Register of Historic Places, Banks was involved in the Indian Wars and first visited Columbus at the behest of Governor Troup to accompany General LaFayette on his trip from Milledgeville to Alabama. He was a founder of the Planters and Mechanics Bank of Columbus and a co-owner, with John E. Dawson, of the Howard Cotton Mill. He and his wife Sarah A. Watkins Banks (1803-1881) had 12 children. Four of their sons died in Confederate service.
National Register of Historic Places
This fine Greek Revival cottage is also known as the Bedell-Starke or Bedell-Browne House. It is the oldest extant house in what would come to be known as the Wildwood Circle subdivision. When the neighborhood was being platted for the subdivision between 1911-1917, it was moved across the street to accommodate a new road. A renovation by local architect T. Firth Lockwood in 1926-1927 added Colonial Revival elements to reflect the popular style of the era, though its Greek Revival origins remain evident.
The first owner, William A. Bedell (1818-1903) was an early settler of Columbus, involved in real estate, warehouses, groceries, and most significantly, cotton brokerage. His obituary in the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, dated 24 September 1903, noted: “William Augustus Bedell was one of the oldest cotton buyers in the state of Georgia. He was born in Jones County. The family moved to Harris County, and when he was a lad of 15, he persuaded his mother to let him come to Columbus for a visit. He arrived in Columbus in November, 1833. Mr. Bedell did his first work in Columbus as a clerk for Ridgeway and Bowden, located at what is now known as Needham’s Corner….”
Numerous owners followed, including Hugh Dawson (1861-1867); John M.* & Mary E. Grier Starke (1867-1884); H. H. Epping (1884-1885); Mary Welch Reynolds (1885-1889); Columbus, later Flournoy, Real Estate Company (1889-1917); J. Rhodes** and Nina Young Brown (1917-c. 1946?). *-The house is located on Stark Avenue, which was likely named for the Starke family. Presumably, the “e” was dropped at some point. | **- J. Rhodes Brown was involved in banking and insurance and served as a mayor of Columbus and on the Muscogee County Board of Commissioners.
Hillcrest-Wildwood Circle Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The antebellum Greek Revival plantation home of John Woolfolk (1781-1861) in Wynnton is one of the most significant surviving houses of early Columbus. Woolfolk and William L. Wynn were the first settlers of the Wynnton area. Woolfolk, a native of Virginia, first came to Augusta before he began acquiring land in Muscogee County in the 1820s. He owned large acreage on the north side of Wynnton Road and purchased the land on which he built this house in 1832, the same year he was elected to the Georgia legislature. The house is important in terms of architectural history, but also African-American history, as it is estimated that approximately 180 enslaved people were held here before Emancipation, according to historian Calvin Schermerhorn’s The Business of Slavery and the Rise of American Capitalism 1815-1860. With his nephew, Austin Woolfolk he was a slave trader, who enslaved nearly 700 people in total. This gave rise to an urban legend suggesting the one of Woolfolk’s sons hunted down and killed slaves and buried them on the grounds or in the walls of the house, known in the legend as the House of a Thousand Cadavers. Of course, considering the value of the enslaved as property, this is highly unlikely. Perhaps the Woolfolk son was just particularly cruel.
Woolfolk’s daughters inherited his estate, which was already being subdivided to accommodate the growth of Wynnton, when he died in 1861. The property later passed to Judge William A. Little and was for a time known as the Little Place. In 1925, it was owned by Minnie J. Flournoy, who transformed it into the Colonial Apartments. She removed the original side porticoes, which have since been replaced, and added one-story wings to the house. This configuration (above) was documented in Howard Major’s seminal work Domestic Architecture of the Early American Republic: The Greek Revival (Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott, 1926).
National Register of Historic Places