Richard A. Pierce was the first to develop 9th Street as an exclusive business district for the Black community. The intersection of 9th Street and 5th Avenue was called the Magic Corner for its central location and the Pierce Building was known as the Ninth Street Mecca. According to the Colored Columbus Directory and Year Book of 1926-1927, Richard A. Pierce (1877-1934) was a highly successful entrepreneur. He was the owner of this structure, which housed the Ninth Street Drug Store, an insurance office, a dental office, Ethel Spencer’s piano school, Anne Spencer’s Accessory Store, and the Pierce Auditorium, a third floor entertainment space which featured live dances and other entertainment. He also owned the Pierce Pocket Billiard Parlor and more than eighty tenant dwellings. He was the largest Black property owner in Columbus in his time.
Like the neighboring Sconiers Building, the Pierce Office Building is a landmark of Black Columbus and should be considered for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. Richard Pierce and John L. Sconiers were pioneers in Black business in the Jim Crow era, and succeeded in spite of the challenges that were inherent to their interests.
This structure served the medical needs of Ways Station-Richmond Hill from 1930 until 1951. According to the Coastal Bryan Heritage Trail, it was established by Mrs. Allethaire Ludlow Rotan as the Ways Health Association on 1 May 1930 and offered primary care to the community. It was first located near the present-day Community House, but was moved and expanded when the Fords assumed control in 1935. It played a central role in the eradication of malaria in the area. Dr. C. F. Holton, with nurses Constance Clark and Ella Reed Sams, served the clinic in the Ford era. And thanks to the generosity of the Fords, medical and dental services were free to all. The clinic ceased operation after the death of Clara Ford and was moved to its present location in the Bryan Neck-Keller area in 1951. Today, its home to a boutique known fittingly as “The Clinic”.
This unusual vernacular house in Collins is a bit difficult to classify architecturally. A marker identifies it as the Dr. Collins House, built circa 1900. I’m not sure if it was just a home or also the doctor’s office.
The History of Twiggs County, Georgia by J. Lanette O’Neal Faulk and Billy Walker Jones (Major General John Twiggs Chapter, D.A.R., Jeffersonville, 1960) notes: “This house was built by Dr. Beniah Carswell at Jeffersonville, Georgia about 1850. The original structure had five rooms and a hall downstairs with two rooms and a hall upstairs. The house was later owned by Nelson Carswell, a grandson of Dr. Carswell. In 1948 Mr. and Mrs. James Edward Beck bought the house from Nelson Carswell which they later remodeled, the timbers used in the renovation having come from Todd Hall”, later known as the Wall Place in Wilkinson County.”
A 2006 historic resources survey conducted by the state of Georgia adds that the house was remodeled circa 1948. Renovations included the replacement of the south end chimney, addition of new piers and asbestos siding, and the addition of a one-story wing on the north side of the house.
Dr. Beniah S. Carswell (1830-1895) was a native of Telfair County, the son of Alexander Carswell and Elizabeth W. Ashley Carswell. He served in Co. A, 22nd Batallion State Guard Cavalry during the Civil War. His first wife and the mother of his children was Caroline Julia Matilda “Carrie” Sears. He later married Mattie R. Harrell (1851-1914).
Note: This replaces and expands a post originally published on 31 March 2018.
Dr. Augustus S. Clark, who founded the Gillespie Normal School in 1902, also sought to improve health care for Cordele’s Black community. In 1925, a gift of $1000 helped establish a hospital, named the Charles Helm Hospital for the benefactor. At the time, the nearest Black hospital was located in Americus. Mrs. Eula Burke Johnson, a graduate of Gillespie Normal School, was the first nurse. The hospital was initially located on the second floor of one of the early school buildings and consisted of two beds and an operating room. Local doctors, white and African-American, served on the staff. The hospital also trained nurses.
The present structure, pictured above, was built in 1937. It had 25 beds and was named for William Gillespie, who donated funds for its construction. Nurse Johnson served as the hospital director and held weekly clinics for midwives. The hospital served the community until the integration of Crisp Regional Hospital in the late 1960s or early 1970s.
Gillespie-Selden Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This home was built by the first settler and namesake of Homerville, Dr. John Homer Mattox (1827-1895) in 1853. In the winter of that year, Dr. Mattox moved his family from their home on the Suwannee River, near the Florida line, to this location. His wife was Lucinda M. Sheffield (1825-1906), daughter of Isham and Lucinda Harrell Sheffield. They eventually had seven children.
Dr. Mattox was the son of Col. Elijah Bankston Mattox (1798-1856) and Lavinia M. Johnson Mattox (1803-1882), who came to Ware County (Clinch County was created in 1850), from Tattnall County. Though a physician by training, Dr. Mattox, according to Folk Huxford’s History of Clinch County (1916), was more interested in farming and business pursuits than the practice of medicine. His brother, Dr. L. C. Mattox, also a physician, lived nearby.
To attract the railroad to locate a station on his land, Dr. Mattox granted them right of way and gave a large lot in the center of the community for public use. The Atlantic & Gulf Railroad laid track here in 1860. The settlement was first officially known as Station No. 11, but when a post office was opened, it was named Homerville, for Dr. Mattox. There was an immediate push to remove the county seat from Magnolia to Homerville, and the legislature authorized this change in December 1860.
Kathryn Griffis Poppell and Kathy M. Poppell donated the home to the city in 2000 and it now serves as the Chamber of Commerce.
Thomas Jefferson Johnson (1793-1847), who came from Pulaski County to southwest Georgia in the early 1820s to establish a plantation, was one of the legislators responsible for the creation of Thomas County in 1825. The county was named for one of Johnson’s relatives, soldier-architect Gen. Jett Thomas (1776-1817).
Dairy Complex, designed by Abram Garfield, 1928. This now houses the Visitors Center.
Johnson built his first house on the property that came to be known as Pebble Hill circa 1825 and married Jane Wilkinson Hadley in 1827. According to the National Register of Historic Places, it was “…a simple two-story dwelling with farm outbuildings and slave cabins nearby.”
Statue of a prized bird dog, one of several found throughout the property. Pansy Poe was an avid sportswoman long before it was fashionable and dogs were her greatest passion.
Jane died after the birth of their third child and Johnson remarried in 1839, to Martha Evans Everett. They had no children. Julia Ann was the only one of Johnson’s three children to live to adulthood.
Log dogtrot cabin, used as a schoolhouse and playhouse. Built in 1901 for Kate Harvey’s children, it’s the oldest surviving structure at Pebble Hill.
At the time of Johnson’s death in 1847, he owned 3000 acres and twenty slaves, who made the plantation a model of self-sufficiency.
Walkway to main house
When Martha Johnson died in 1850, the property was inherited by Julia Ann, who married John William Henry Mitchell, Sr., soon afterward.
Main house, 1936
The Mitchells replaced the original house with a more refined structure, commissioning English-born architect John Wind, who had already built many fine area homes and the Thomas County Courthouse.
Formal garden in front of the main house, designed circa 1934 by V. Ethylwyn Harrison, one of America’s first female landscape architects
Their eldest daughter, Jane Temperance Mitchell, complained of constantly sweeping pebbles from the walkways around the house, and complained that the family lived on a “pebble hill”. The name has been synonymous with the property ever since.
Tunnel arbor
Mr. Mitchell entered Confederate service late in the Civil War, as an adjutant of local militia, serving in the defense of Atlanta at the request of Governor Joseph E. Brown, but upon returning home to a greatly reduced labor force, died from pneumonia in March 1865.
Side of main house
The land was subdivided among the Mitchell heirs in 1876. Julia Ann and her children, Jane Temperance Stevens, Martha Josephine Stubbs, Mary Elizabeth (Bettie) Davenport, and John W. H. Mitchell, Jr. all received parcels. Julia Ann died in 1881.
Whimsical statuary at side entrance of house. There are several of these, all with different instruments, and two turkeys, as well.
By the 1890s, Pebble Hill as it had existed in its heyday had been further subdivided and sold to Horace J. McFarlan of New Jersey.
Pool and fountain in the arbor behind the main house
During this time, Thomasville and Thomas County had become a popular destination for wealthy Northern tourists seeking winter relief.
View from formal garden behind the main house
After briefly being owned by McFarlan and Thomasville judge Henry W. Hopkins, Pebble Hill was purchased by Howard Melville ‘Mel’ Hanna circa 1900. In 1901, Hanna gave Pebble Hill to his daughter, Kate Hanna Ireland. Mrs. Ireland increased the size of the property to around 4000 acres in short order and brought her children, Robert Livingston ‘Liv’ Ireland and Elizabeth ‘Pansy’ Ireland for long visits each winter.
Rear elevation showing the central section of the main house
They began spending more time in Thomas County and became very attached to the property. Kate Ireland added gardens near the main house, increased the living space through the construction of a new wing, and built structures to accommodate the growing number of visitors who came to hunt and explore the land.
Pebble Hill Plantation Cemetery
Kate established a championship Jersey herd in the 1920s and with it, a corporate function of the plantation, known as Pebble Hill Products.
Magnificent oaks are found throughout the property
Kate divorced in 1919 and married Perry Williams Harvey, an executive with the Hanna Company in Cleveland. The focus of the Pebble Hill property at this time had shifted to a shooting plantation. In fact, it was the crown jewel of the Thomas County quail plantations. My friend Joe Kitchens, who served as the first director of Pebble Hill when the site opened to the public in 1983, and who wrote the text accompanying Hank Margeson’s photographs in The Quail Plantations of South Georgia & North Florida (UGA Press, 1991), gives an excellent background at his Longleaf Journal: “There is history behind this story. When the railroads first began bringing northern tourists and outdoors men and women to Georgia, the track literally ended in Thomasville. Below was Florida- still malaria and yellow fever country. In addition to its comfortable winter weather, the “piney woods” of Thomasville offered health benefits- or so it was claimed-as well as outdoor adventure. Five large resort hotels, a carriage course around the town and a “Yankee Paradise” Park attracted winter visitors from the “frozen north.” Horseback riding, coaching, fishing for largemouth base (gigantic in the warm waters of nearby alligator-infested lakes, Iamonia and Miccossuki), and above all the chance to shoot quail (not “hunt”- in sporting parlance the dogs “hunted” and the humans “shot”). Dogs, horses, warm weather and shooting. An enticing alternative to freezing weather, snow and soot- filled air in Cleveland and other northern cities…Many of the new owners were partners and beneficiaries of the boom in oil-and the monopolizing enterprise of John D. Rockefeller, whose Standard Oil Company made Cleveland the heartland of financial and industrial ambition. Among those who flourished there were the Hannas, the family and kin of Senator Mark Hanna of Ohio. Hanna emerged as a “king maker” in national politics by managing the campaign of presidential aspirant William McKinley. Mark Hanna seems to have nourished ambitions of being president himself. In the Gilded Age, potential Republican presidential candidates were vetted in Thomasville by the wintering millionaires. A grand niece of Mark Hanna, Mrs. Parker Barrington Poe, or “Pansy” as she was universally known, owned Pebble Hill. It was said you could walk across Thomas County and never leave Hanna- owned land.”
This appears to housing for workers, or a small office.
The National Register of Historic Places notes: “Large expanses of land were burned off each season to allow freedom of movement for both wildlife and hunters, and fields of corn and other grains were planted and left, unharvested, to attract game birds, particularly quail. Local residents were hired and trained to assist in running the plantation and in organizing the hunts. Since hunting season meant many guests remained for extended periods, a large house staff was required to meet the needs of the family. To house all of these workers, cottages were constructed on the grounds. More than sixty such families lived on the property.”
Plantation Store, 1911. This is where Pebble Hill Products were sold to plantation workers and others.
During this period, Kate oversaw an expansion of the built environment at Pebble Hill, commissioning numerous support structures and landscaping that reflected her passion for the property.
Overflow Cottage, Circa 1917. This accommodated guests when the main house was full.
Abram Garfield, son of President James A. Garfield, designed a complex of service buildings, including a dairy, cow barn, stables, and a carriage house. Apartments and offices for workers were also constructed at this time.
Nurses’ Station, 1929
Besides Easter and Christmas celebrations for the employees and their families, Black workers were feted on Emancipation Day. This was unheard of in the rest of the South, but Northern Republicans of this time were quite progressive and it was the norm at Pebble Hill and other plantations in Thomas County.
Nurses’ station, interior
Perry Harvey died in 1932, and in 1934, the historic plantation house was destroyed in a fire that left just a 1914 expansion wing intact.
Dog Hospital, 1920s
Kate Harvey again called on Abram Garfield to build a new residence, and V. Ethylwyn Harrison, one of the few female landscape architects in the nation, designed new gardens and landscape features to complement the house.
Fire House, 1920s. The constant danger of fire made a working fire engine a necessity.
Another innovation at the plantation in the early 1930s was felt throughout Thomas County, thanks to Kate Harvey’s foresight. The Pebble Hill School and Visiting Nurse Association was ahead of its time and was encouraged and supported by other plantation owners. At a time when simple medical care was out of reach for many in this region, Kate Harvey provided registered nurses who traveled throughout the county tending to sick plantation workers and other laborers.
‘The Waldorf’, 1929. This was the plantation laundry.
In May 1936, just four months after the completion of the house, Kate Harvey died.
‘The Waldorf’, interior
Elizabeth ‘Pansy’ Ireland inherited the estate and spent the rest of her life preserving its legacy, especially the improvements her mother had made during her ownership.
Kitchen garden shed, 1920s
She also inherited her mother’s love of the outdoors and of Pebble Hill itself, and continued many of the traditions associated with the property.
Kitchen garden, 1917
She was one of the few female polo players of her era, and kept several champion thoroughbred horses on the property.
Mrs. Poe’s ‘speed limit’ sign
She also owned over a hundred hunting dogs at one time, even building a dog hospital and luxury kennels.
Pump house, Circa 1929
She married Parker Barrington Poe (1914-1991) in 1946 and at the time of her death in 1978, had established a foundation to preserve Pebble Hill in perpetuity and to open it for public visitation.
Kennel Cottage, Circa 1928. Also known as ‘Mack’s House’, for kennel manager Mack McQueen, this housed the kennelman and his family.
Mr. Poe oversaw this transition and the site was opened in 1983. It remains the finest example of the hunting plantations that put Thomas County on the map.
Learning Center
Pebble Hill not only offers a rare glimpse into plantation life, but is a living museum of two centuries of agriculture, architecture, social change, and preservation.
The Elbert County Health Center is an excellent example of Mid-Century Modern architecture, which was uncommon in rural Georgia. It was designed by local architect James M. Hunt. Particularly interesting is the roof, which is known as an inverted or butterfly roof. Modern architecture was a common choice for public health facilities, as well as doctor’s offices and banks, in the 1950s and 1960s, and was meant to convey a sense of progress and innovation. The style was never overly popular with the public, however, and as a result many examples have been demolished. This facility has been abandoned for quite a few years and should be considered endangered. It wasn’t included as a contributing resource in the Elbert Commercial Historic District, but should be re-evaluated.
Christened “Orna Villa” in 1820 by Dr. Alexander Means, Jr. (1801-1883), this is the oldest house in Oxford, and if the log house from which it was expanded is considered, likely has origins in the 1790s.
In her highly-readable history of the house, current owner Lisa Dorward has done more research than anyone else, it seems. She writes: A Virginian by the name of Richard Keenon Dearing had come to Georgia in 1793 and purchased 2,000 acres of land on which he built a four-room plantation house of hand-hewn logs. Dr. Means bought the house from Dearing around 1820 and set about expanding and remodeling it into the grand Greek Revival house it is today. Among Dr. Means’s many interests was ornithology, so he named his home that stood among the trees, Orna Villa, meaning “Bird House.”
Alexander Means, Jr., was a renaissance man who, as the Oxford Historical Society notes, served as a physician, school teacher, scientist, college professor, poet, college president, statesman, and as the first state chemist in the United States. Born to an Irish immigrant father and Scots-Irish mother in Statesville, North Carolina, Means settled circa 1820 in what would eventually become the town of Oxford. He married Sarah A. E. Winston in 1827 and they had 11 children. He helped establish the Newton County Female Seminary, served as president of the Georgia Conference Manual Labor School, and taught natural sciences at the newly established Emory College, among other academic endeavors. He entertained President Millard Fillmore at Orna Villa, and delivered the funeral oration for President Zachary Taylor. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from the Medical College of Georgia, where he taught during winter sessions. He retired from Emory in 1855, after briefly serving as president. Though he traveled and lectured in many locations, he remained at Orna Villa throughout his life.
As accomplished as he was and as varied his interests, Means, was also man of his time Research by Dr. Gary Hauk and Dr. Sally Wolff King suggests that between 20-28 men, women, and children were enslaved at Orna Villa. Ironically perhaps, Dr. Means was initially opposed to secession, but soon became a vocal supporter of the Confederacy.
Orna Villa stands today as one of the most tangible symbols of Oxford and Newton County’s early history. There are quite a few “ghost stories” related to the house, as well, especially those concerning Toby Means, but you’ll have to read Lisa Doward’s articles to learn more about them.
This fine Greek Revival townhouse is one of the architectural highlights of Greenville Street, in one of the oldest residential historic districts in Newnan. It was built by Dr. J. T. Reese, an early druggist in the community. Newnan was known as a hospital town during the Civil War, and this was one of the houses where injured soldiers were taken for care.
The house is also associated with the Umberger family and known as the Reese-Umberger House. The colonnade was likely added in the early 1900s when the Neoclassical movement was in full swing.
Greenville Street-LaGrange Street Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
