Local lumber baron John Ernest Donalson (1846-1920), for whom nearby Donalsonville, Georgia, was named, built this house in 1898. In addition to his vast holdings with the Donalson Lumber Company, he was a Confederate veteran, well-known Georgia entrepreneur, lawyer, and judge. Bainbridge was the center of his business operations.
The Queen Anne home, possibly a George Barber design, originally featured Tiffany stained-glass windows, but they were removed by a later owner and sold. The house is also said to have been the first in Bainbridge to feature wire window screens, quite an innovation at the time.
Bainbridge Residential 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.
This house was built on the eve of the Civil War for Bolling Anthony Stovall (19 August 1827-24 August 1887), a prominent Piedmont merchant and engineer born in Hancock County to a well-to-do family who had come to Georgia from Virginia. Upon moving to Augusta, he began work as a cotton factor while attending Richmond Academy before entering Franklin College (University of Georgia). He studied civil engineering and worked in Alabama and Mississippi for a few years before returning to Georgia. He was also a surveyor for improvements to the Georgia State Road and worked with Major John G. Greene in the survey of the Atlanta & West Point Railroad. Because employment in engineering was sporadic at the time, he joined his father in his wholesale grocery business at Stovall & McLaughlin in Augusta. At the outset of the war, he entered the Confederate service as a sergeant with Company A, Richmond Hussars, Cobb’s Legion. He was transferred to the engineering corps as a lieutenant under General John Bankhead Magruder during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, before finishing out the war as a captain in the subsistence department under the command of fellow Augustan General Isaac Munroe St. John. He married Mattie Wilson after the war and worked for many years as a traveling agent with the Georgia Chemical Works of Augusta.
Stovall’s son, Pleasant Alexander Stovall (7 July 1857-14 May 1935), lived in the house until his parents left Augusta for Athens, in 1873. He became a prominent journalist and eventual owner of a Savannah newspaper. His childhood friend, President Woodrow Wilson, appointed him Ambassador to Switzerland in 1913, where he served until 1919.
Congressman George T. Barnes purchased the home in 1873 and in the 20th century it was used as a residential hotel/boarding house.
Greene Street Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This is one of the most outstanding Greek Revival houses in Georgia and is well-maintained. I believe it was built by Thomas T. Napier, whose Virginia-born father, Thomas Napier, owned over 6000 acres in Bibb and surrounding counties at the time of his death in 1838. Thomas T. Napier also built a home in Ringgold in 1836. I will do my best to clarify this history when I can better discern the genealogy.
This Italianate home was built for Judge Cicero Decatur McCutchen (31 October 1824-17 March 1898) with bricks made on the property. It remained in the McCutchen family for well over a century.
Thornton Avenue-Murray Hill Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
James Lile Lemon (27 October 1835-12 June 1907), and his brother, Smith Lemon, were among the earliest settlers of Acworth. James and his wife Mary Davenport Lemon built this home in 1856, four years before the town’s incorporation. It began as a small farmhouse and was expanded into a modified Plantation Plain. The portico was added in 1890, replacing a two-story porch.
Major General William T. Sherman stayed in the house during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain [6-9 June 1864]. Some sources also note that the house was used as a hospital. It is said that Sherman ordered the house burned but it was spared when a lieutenant ordered other fires to be ceased.
Descendants of the James and Mary Lemon still own and maintain this important home.
This house, built by Whitmill Phillips Allen (6 November 1811-January 1868), was once the center of a plantation located four miles north of Jonesboro on the Atlanta Road. Allen sold the property to Robert McCord in 1858; McCord answered the call to Confederate service not long after settling onto the property. During the Battle of Jonesboro, Union soldiers set up camp on the grounds. The house survived the Civil War and when McCord returned home, he resumed operations of the farm, selling the property in 1879. My understanding is that the next owner was John Columbus Orr. It remained in the Orr family until Emily Orr Haynie transferred it to Historical Jonesboro, Inc. In 1972 the house was moved to its present location and is operated as a museum today. Georgia architect Edward Vason Jones was responsible for the restoration and noted of Stately Oaks: The house is a simple but well-proportioned country house done in the Greek Revival style. From the provincial quality of the details, it appears to have been built, as well as designed, by a capable but untrained carpenter-builder about the year 1840…The mass of the house is pleasing and the plan basically good, being typical of the majority of the rural Greek Revival houses throughout Georgia…
Some contend that the house was the inspiration for Tara in Gone with the Wind, though this can’t be proved since Margaret Mitchell didn’t confirm it [to my knowledge]. She would have known this house, however, and it is certainly of the type she would have drawn inspiration from when writing the book.
Nine years ago, Lindsay Thomas, Jr., whose family owns and maintains this wonderful Georgia Centennial Farm, reached out to me about photographing the old home place near Screven. Lindsay’s father served in the United States House of Representatives from 1983-1993. Lindsay was very interested in documenting the large number of catface pines and Herty cups on the property. I still haven’t gotten around to making those photographs, but hope to someday soon. [For those not in the know, catfaces are the scars left behind by the collection of pine sap for the manufacture of turpentine. The naval stores business was dominant in this region until at least the 1950s.]
The farm, known as Grace Acres today, was established by Captain C. C. Grace, circa 1864, and the house was likely built around that time. The family has maintained a presence in the area ever since and they’re not only good stewards of the land, but they do a fine job of maintaining this historic home.
This eclectic Queen Anne house is one of the largest residential structures in downtown Albany, situated on a massive lot. Its scale is quite impressive. From Trulia: This house boasts a rich history with Nelson Tift, founder of Albany, as the original landowner. The original home had 5 stories, the top two destroyed in a fire in 1956. The third floor is currently being used as attic space. The original woodwork, mantles, banisters and moldings, were hand carved. The five fireplace mantels are made of cherry or mahogany wood. The 12 ft. mantel in the front center office was purchased at the Chicago’s World Fair in 1885. This office and the stairwell both feature original Tiffany glass stained windows. This property is also home to last known artesian well in the South Georgia. The stone wall surrounding the property was constructed with local limestone. In addition to serving as a private home to Confederate Col. Edwin Wight and Dr. W.L. Davis, it served as a funeral home for 35 years.
Rock fences surrounding the property add another dimension to its character.
The historic marker for the house, placed by the Georgia Historical Commission in 1958, is titled “Albany’s First Brick House”.
It gives this brief overview of the home’s history: Built of brick hauled from Macon by wagon, this house was completed in 1860 by Congressman William R. (Tete) Smith for his bride, Caroline Williams Smith. The interior trim and mahogany stair rail came from New York; the furnishings were imported from England. Flower beds were laid out in Masonic designs with statues of Minerva and Flora prominently displayed. Captain of the Albany Guards of the 4th Ga. Regt., Smith lost a leg in the Battle of King´s Schoolhouse, Virginia. Member of the Confederate Congress and, later, of the U. S. Congress, he was an able lawyer and a beloved citizen of Albany.
