This iconic Washington home was given to the State of Georgia for use as a house museum in 1957 and ownership was eventually returned to city. It has served as the Washington Historical Museum for many years and many consider it to be one of the best small-town museums in the state.
Built by Albert Gallatin Semmes circa 1835, it was originally a much simpler vernacular house, of the saltbox style. Semmes did not live in Washington for long, leaving for Florida in 1836. The house was sold to Mary Sneed in 1836. Georgia’s first Railroad Commissioner and an editor of the Augusta Chronicle, Samuel Jack Barnett, Jr., purchased it in 1857 and enlarged and gave it its present appearance. His heirs sold it to William Armstrong Slaton in 1913 and he owned it until his death in 1954.
Cherry Grove Baptist Church, like multitudes of historic African-American congregations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was as committed to the education of its children as it was to catering to the spiritual needs of its community. They built this little one-room schoolhouse circa 1910 for that purpose. In the Jim Crow era, there was little to no emphasis placed on the literacy of Black children by the state, so that responsibility was borne by churches. Philanthropic organizations such as the the Rosenwald Fund began building schools for these under-served communities in 1912, but Cherry Grove predates that time and is therefore an important link to a part of our history that is often overlooked.
Recent historical resource surveys have identified 15 of these church-supported schoolhouses in Georgia, and most can be considered highly endangered resources. They may have once numbered in the hundreds, so their loss is significant, not only to the Black community but to the historical record as well.
The Cherry Grove School, with one teacher overseeing grades 1-7, closed in 1956. This was an effect of widespread consolidation which saw the state building better Black schools, known as Equalization Schools, in an effort to delay the desegregation mandated by Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The school deteriorated with the passage of time, and was as endangered as all the other Black schoolhouses in Georgia. Thanks to the work of Barrett Hanson and the Friends of Cherry Grove Schoolhouse, this special place has been given a new lease on life and will hopefully serve a new educational purpose to coming generations. Their efforts saw the school placed on the National Register of Historic Places and were recognized earlier this year with the prestigious Marguerite Williams Award, given by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation for the project that made the greatest impact on historic preservation in Georgia.
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.
The Lincolnton Presbyterian Church, originally known as Union Presbyterian Church, was built circa 1823. The front of the building was extended to incorporate a foyer in the 20th century, and the steeple is also a later addition.
Colonel Peter Lamar gave a three acre tract to commissioners Rem Remson and John M. Dooly to be used for a public or private school, a church, or other public use. A cemetery, dating to at least 1834, is located on the site of the original Lincolnton Academy next door to the church.
The church was originally a union church, meaning it served different faiths. In addition to the Union Presbyterian congregation, the Baptists and Methodists met here until 1876 and 1915 respectively, when they built their own houses of worship.
Artist Addison Niday has recently restored some Coca-Cola murals in Lincolnton, so this old Pepsi mural on the Anderson & Sons building, likely dating to the early 1960s, was a nice complement to his other work. I think restoring these old murals is a great idea, especially in small towns, where they bring bright color and memories of the past back to life in a big way.
Lincolnton Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
In the nomination form for the individual listing of this home on the National Register of Historic Places, the contributor wrote: The Chapman-Steed House is significant inarchitecture because it is an excellent and highly intact example of the Georgian House type in residential architecture in a small town setting. It retains its character-defining overall form and floor plan as well as many of its original exterior and interior building materials. According to Georgia’s Living Places: Historic Houses in their Landscaped Settings, a statewide context, the Georgian house is an important historic house type in Georgia. The two-story Georgian house is less numerous than the one-story Georgian cottage, but it was alsopopular from the first decades of the 19th century into the 20th century. Most examples of the type were built in larger towns and cities. While the Chapman-Steed House does not contain high-styleornamentation, it retains most of its original materials including its chimneys, stone piers, truncated hipped roof, full-facade, two-story front porch, doors, windows, stairway, and fireplaces with original mantels. Indeed the absence of applied stylistic ornamentation makes this house an excellent and clear example of the Georgian House type. The house was the home to two generations of a locally prominent family who were an integral part of the activities of this county-seat town. The builder andowner, W. C. Chapman , born 1866, built the house shortly after his marriage. Known as “Chapman the Grocer,” he ran a grocery in Crawfordville for many years. The house passed to his daughter, Mary Lela Steed, who was a public school teacher for forty-two years in Crawfordville. The house left the family in 1991.
National Register of Historic Places [individual listing] + Crawfordville Historic District [contributing structure]
I’ve always liked this home, located across the street from the courthouse in Crawfordville. It’s difficult to classify, at least for me, but those with more knowledge have identified the type as a vernacular interpretation of the Neoclassical Revival style. My best guess for a date would be circa 1890-1910.
Crawfordville Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
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
