Ebenezer Baptist Church, one of the oldest congregations in Wilkes County, was established in 1787. In papers held by the University of Georgia, photographer Hubert Bond gave 1790 as the construction date of the church but a more recent source suggests 1904. It is possible that parts of the earlier structure were incorporated into this one, and, considering its Greek Revival style, it may have antebellum origins.
The church is the last remaining public landmark of the historic community of Aonia, which had a post office from 1843-1918.
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
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.
The land on which this fine Greek Revival plantation house stands has been in the Willis family since James Henry Willis married Sarah A. Barksdale in 1840. Mr. Willis began construction on the house in 1854, according to his granddaughter Mary Sale Stennett, and it was completed in 1857. Willis was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives the year the house was completed and served in the 1857-1858 term.
It is believed to be the first of three houses within a six-mile radius attributed to James Cunningham, an area carpenter. The Chenault House and Matthews House, in Lincoln County, and by influence, the Anderson House in nearby Danburg, make up this collective resource. The Chennault House is the closest in appearance to the Willis-Sale-Stennett House.
John L. Anderson was the fourth generation of his family to live in the Danburg area, and upon his return from service in the Civil War, bought the land on which he would build this fine home. It is a massive presence and its landscaped grounds are a symbol of this small community. The house is late Greek Revival with strong Victorian details.
Our friend Tom Poland, a well-known writer from the area, said this about the house in his essay on Danburg: …the Pink Anderson House, a place mom remembers well though she never went inside. This stately home on the National Register of Historic Places is a Greek Revival home. It most likely incorporates an earlier building Dr. W. D. Quinn erected in the 1790s. So says the research. John Anderson later built the home as it appears today. The home’s columns came from Savannah, the mirrors and cornices from England. New York and Chicago provided the home’s fine furniture and curtains. A 24 x 35 foot banquet room and stone kitchen stood in a separate building connected to the main home by a breezeway.
The last Anderson to live in the home was Miss Pink Anderson, thus my mom’s reference to the place as the Pink Anderson home. Miss Pink lived there during the Great Depression. Money was beyond tight and the formal gardens and fountain vanished as vines and undergrowth took over.
The home sat empty for many years until 1962 when mom’s Uncle Ernest Walker bought it and remodeled it. The roof of the old kitchen and dining room had fallen in, leaving the walls standing. Down they came, demolished.
...It’s beautiful. The home and its columns squarely face the road. A large holly and magnolia contest each other for space and both conspire to hide one of the columns gracing the home. A classic white picket fence fronts the building, which sits right at the edge of Highway 44.
The Anderson House is generally thought to be influenced by and therefore grouped with three other nearby houses thought to be the work of John Cunningham, an area carpenter with special skills. [The Willis-Sale-Stennett House, in the Danburg vicinity, the Chenault House, and Matthews House, in nearby Lincoln County]. Cunningham was gone from the area by 1861 and a Danburg tradition states that a so-far-unknown black carpenter directed the building of the Anderson House.
This vernacular Greek Revival lodge of the Free & Accepted Masons is a nice rural landmark. There aren’t a lot of lodges of this style in Georgia. This one has been slightly modified, appearing to be “stripped” of some of its elements [perhaps a front porch; the entry has also been reduced in sized] but is still a great representation of the form.
A Georgia Historical Society marker placed in 1956 notes: This church, originally known as “Bird’s Chapel,” was founded in 1826 as the first church in the newly formed town of Crawfordville. It was an outgrowth of the now defunct Powder Creek Meeting House near Sandy Cross, which came into existence about 1805. “Bird’s Chapel” was ministered to by the Rev. Williamson Bird, Jr., who built and lived in the house now known as “Liberty Hall,” the home of Alexander Hamilton Stephens. This chapel, originally located at the corner of what is now Jackson and Askin Streets, was later moved closer in to town for the convenience of its members. It was disbanded just before the War Between the States due to the moving away of many of its members, but was re-formed by the Rev. Allen Thomas, in 1876, on the southwest corner of the Liberty Hall lawn on land donated by Alexander H. Stephens. By 1911, this old church was outgrown and a new and larger building was built a half-block north of this present site; that building was destroyed by a cyclone in 1918. The present building, of Greek Colonial design, was erected in 1920.
The church is a wonderful example of the use of Greek Revival architecture in public buildings in the early 20th century.
Crawfordville Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This raised Greek Revival cottage on Maiden Lane was the home of Dennis Ryan, the local newspaper editor who covered Aaron Burr’s presence in the area after his duel with Alexander Hamilton. I believe the house has been recently restored.
Sparta Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
