Tag Archives: Georgia Plantation Plain Houses

Vickers-Howard House, Ludowici

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I believe this Plantation Plain-style home was built circa 1870, when Long County was still a part of Liberty County. The identification is preliminary and based on local suggestions.

Pamela T. Jordan suggests: it may have been once owned by the Vickers family. Marion and Margaret Howard had it moved to this spot. Margaret’s brother, Homer Breckinridge owned the house next to it and Hollis and Nancy Brady lived on the other side. When the Vickers family owned it it was on the dirt road running parallel to Highway 99. It was moved when I was about in the 6th grade. Margaret was the daughter of longtime Ludowici merchants Rufus & Ernestine Smiley. It was possibly owned by the Chapmans before the Vickers.

Update: This house was demolished in 2017.

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Joyce-McArthur House, Circa 1810, Tattnall County

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This beautiful landmark near the Altamaha community is likely the oldest house in Tattnall County. It was built by Revolutionary War veteran John Joyce and later passed to Malcolm Daniel McArthur of the Tattnall Rangers, 61st Georgia Volunteer Infantry, CSA. One of Colonel McArthur’s descendants, Ann Carswell, and her husband Bill spent over ten years painstakingly restoring this important house. It’s built of heart pine with peg-through-peg construction and the bricks were quarried from an old “clay hole” nearby.

Alvin & Lena Gnann House, Circa 1889, Stillwell

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This is of the style commonly called “Plantation Plain”. This particular house has been stabilized and is a very nice example of this popular 19th-century design. It’s possibly of antebellum origin.

The History of Effingham County states: Bertie and Effie Gnann are considered the “First Family” of Stillwell, having staked their future in the town and being life long residents. The Gnann’s built the first house in town, which was a one-story frame residence with a gingerbread porch. Bertie opened a small store with his brother Alvin in 1892. The store was located along the railroad tracks next to the present Post Office building. In addition to being a grocery store, the building served as the headquarters for the freight agent and served as the location of the first post office. Bertie, along with his brothers Henry and Willie, operated the first saw mill in the town. The brothers later added a grist mill, planing mill, stave mill, and cotton gin. Bertie Gnann also served as Stillwell’s first post master, remaining in that capacity for 47 years. The original house was replaced with the present two-story house in the 1930s.

 

Littlefield House, 1868, Brunswick

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This beautiful restoration is one of the gems of the Hanover Square neighborhood, and was the first house to be built facing the park, originally a Plantation Plain, or I-House. It served as a boarding house for a time and was later transformed into a landmark of the Carpenter Gothic aesthetic. It is also known as the Littlefield-Lambright-Robb House.

Brunswick Old Town Historic District, National Register of Historic Places

Newbern House, Broxton

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Thanks to my friend Jim Cottingham for bringing this house to my attention. He writes: Daniel and Saphronia Fussell Newbern raised their children here, one of whom was Grandmother Eula Newbern Cottingham (1885-1974).

Photo Courtesy The Rogers Studio Collection/Coffee County Historical Society (1914)

The house is dated circa 1900 by the tax assessor, but it may have been built a bit earlier. The I-House, or Plantation Plain, was one of Georgia’s earliest and most popular house types. It’s possible that the 1900 date refers to an improvement, such as the rear shed room.

John Pearson House, Circa 1847, Tattnall County

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This house began as a Plantation Plain but was made more formal with the addition of the vernacular Greek Revival portico. A substantial rear wing was also added at some point. It is located in the forgotten community of Altamaha, Georgia. John P. Rabun, Jr., writes: …the Pearson House was built by John Pearson ca. 1847. John Pearson, a native of Screven County, was one of the two builders of the fine 1857 Greek Revival Courthouse in Reidsville, which was replaced by the 1902 structure still standing but much altered. John Pearson died in 1863. There is another Pearson house built by John’s brother, Lawrence Pearson, still standing not far from this house. One of the Pearson ladies of a later generation married David Tod, a native of Scotland, and the house became known as the Tod House or the Pearson-Tod House. Unlike the Todd family living in Tattnall County when he arrived from Scotland, he spelled his name with only one “d”, saying – irreverently – that if one “d” was good enough for God it was good enough for Tod.

 

Jason Franklin House, Circa 1868, Adabelle

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A two-story abandoned house with peeling white paint, surrounded by overgrown vegetation and trees, under a blue sky.

This classic Plantation Plain farmhouse was built by Jason Franklin (1845-1917) in the late 1860s, soon after his marriage to America Rountree (1845-1922). It was actually built around a much smaller log house attributed to Benjamin Turner, with some sources dating its construction to the late 1700s. I cannot confirm that date; however, the expansion of pre-existing dwellings was a common practice among yeoman farmers and planters in the 19th century.

Jason Franklin was a successful farmer and prominent in local politics. He and America had 11 children. Three of their sons were doctors: Dr. Virgil Eugene Franklin (1870-1940); Dr. John Russell Franklin, dentist (1874-1937); and Dr. Rufus Cecil Franklin (1881-1942). They provided care to neighbors in the upstairs portion of the house before establishing their own offices.

An abandoned Plantation Plain house surrounded by overgrown vegetation and large trees, with a clear blue sky overhead.

In 1906, the Jason and America moved to Statesboro, but kept the farmhouse. The house was essentially abandoned after their deaths, but was restored in 1949 by their daughter-in-law, Pearl Dekle Franklin (1882-1978). Anthony Wayne Franklin writes: “I lived in the old Jason Franklin house from just after my birth in 1955 until I was 13 years of age in 1968. My father was H.V. Franklin Jr. The house is much older than 1900. My great grandfather Jason bought a log cabin from a Mr. Turner in 1868. He built over the log cabin to the structure that it is today. It is a shame no one has the money to bring it back to life!“

Jason Franklin House in Adabelle, Georgia, showing the attached kitchen. The scene is set against a clear blue sky with a dirt road in the foreground.

 

Thanks to Burney C. Marsh for the identification.

Henry Walcott House, Circa 1855, Long County

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This landmark antebellum farmhouse is in largely original condition. Because of its lack of modification, it’s one of the most important houses in the area.

Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to locate much about the early history of the house. Local lore suggests that Mr. Walcott wasn’t the original owner but that he was the man most associated with the house and making improvements to the surrounding farmland. Though it’s in need of stabilization, the overall condition of the house is good.

 

Murray House, Long County

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This is a classic of the “Plantation Plain” style. Though I can’t confirm at this time, it is thought to be antebellum. The area near the house is known as Murray Crossroads.

Lane-Waters House, 1870s, Bulloch County

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Decrepit Plantation Plain house with a porch, surrounded by overgrown vegetation and trees under a clear blue sky.

This is located near the Harville House. Marty Waters writes: “The Jim Waters Family lived in this house from 1930 until my last uncle died in 2001. Our family has farmed this land since the mid-1920s. It is our understanding that the house was built in the 1870s by the Lane family. In the early 1900s the area was known as Enal* (Lane spelled backward). The home is owned by residents in Florida.”

*-There was a post office at Enal from 1882-1906.

Plantation Plain house with a brick chimney, partially surrounded by a large, barren tree and overgrown vegetation.