Built in the Georgian Cottage style by John Trowbridge for J. D. Roberts, this home later housed a doctor’s office, millinery shop, and the Burke County museum.
Waynesboro Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
For now, I’m calling this house “eclectic” because it’s a really hard one to pin down. It’s generally listed as a Queen Anne, with a build date circa 1885. I think it’s much earlier, and was built as something very different. It may just be wishful thinking.
Viewed from a perspective, there are elements of Federal architecture with a bit of Italianate influence. I believe the hip roof and the porches were a later decorative addition. I hope a friend in Eatonton can help me out. It’s a great house, but remains a mystery.
Eatonton Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Eatonton Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This eclectic Victorian has also been home to Duke, Kelly, and Rosseter families.
Eatonton Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This double-pen tenant house is located adjacent to the historic Tompkins Inn. [This photograph dates to 2015, so I’m unsure as to the status of the house at this time]. It was included in the National Register of Historic Places nomination of the property in 1978 and described as a servant or drivers’ dwelling, dated to the early 1800s. The context of the term servant would imply slave if the structure was built before 1865, but that is not made clear, and therefore, I think it probably dates to the decade after the Civil War. The survival rate for wood frame slave dwellings is very low. A small family cemetery on the property is believed to include slave burials, though, so they did have a presence here.
I’m identifying it by the owner of the property at that time, which was most likely Emiline Boswell. Emiline was the second wife of Josias Boswell, who acquired the property upon the death of his first wife, Sarah Tompkins Boswell. Josias lost the property to A. R. Zachary due to debt, in 1862, but it was purchased by Emiline Boswell in 1874. She owned it until her death in 1910.
National Register of Historic Places
Rock Eagle is often cited as one of the great wonders of Georgia, yet it remains largely a mystery. Irby Hudson Scott acquired the land after the 1802 treaty with the Creek Indians and his family never farmed the area near the effigy, before selling it to the federal government in 1938. The first known published reference to the mound was made in 1854 by Reverend George White in his Historical Collections of Georgia. In the 1878 Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, C. C. Jones referred to it as the Scott Eagle Mound, in a detailed description of his research at the site. The most recent scholarship places construction of the site at 1500-500 years ago, but dating a place like this is an evolving process. There isn’t even agreement that it’s an eagle. Some have suggested that it represents a vulture. The image of a bird with open wings has been found on many Mississippian artifacts, religious objects, and petroglyphs, and while Rock Eagle is likely of the Woodland period, the influence continued.
Another large bird effigy mound consisting of milky white quartz, known as Rock Hawk, is located nearby. A third effigy mound, known as the Pressley [Presley] Mound or Mound No. 3, was identified on a map of these sites made by C. C. Jones in the 1870s. Now lost to insensitive excavation, it was located on the Eatonton-Godfrey Road.
In June 1940, the Georgia Society of Colonial Dames of the XVII Century erected a bronze plaque on a slab of Georgia granite, between the parking lot and the effigy. It reads: Rock Eagle Mound – Mound of Prehistoric Origin. Believed to be Ceremonial Mound. Made with white quartz rocks in the shape of an eagle. Head turned to east. Length 102 feet. Spread of wings 120 feet. Depth of breast 8 feet. Only two such configurations discovered East of the Mississippi River. Both in Putnam County. “Tread softly here white man, for long ere you came, strange races lived, fought and loved.”
In 1936, Works Progress Administration archaeologist Martin Cromer dug exploratory trenches around the mound and found little more than pottery shards and daub. At the time, Rock Eagle was likely in a condition similar to present-day Rock Hawk. By 1938, Cromer restored the effigy to measurements and specifications made by C. C. Jones in 1877.
The tower is a landmark unto itself. Along with the parking lot, fence, and walkway, it was built in 1938.
Some of the most important excavations done at the site were completed in 1954 by Dr. Vincenzo Petrullo and Dr. A. R. Kelly, who recovered burned and unburned human and animal remains, as well as a single quartz point. This research suggested evidence of a prehistoric presence at the site, but unfortunately, the artifacts are lost today.
The Rock Eagle 4-H Center opened in 1955, and has undoubtedly hosted tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of students over its 70 year history.
As a ceremonial site, Rock Eagle is sacred to Native Americans. The University of Georgia is committed to its perpetual preservation and it is open year-round and with no admission cost. The surrounding property is some of the most beautiful and unspoiled in the region.
National Register of Historic Places
Upon the creation of Warren County in 1793, court was first held at the home of James McCormick. In 1796, the location was moved to the plantation of Sterling Gardner, which was designated the official county seat. It is said that a courthouse was built on the Warrenton square in 1809, but little to no evidence has been found to corroborate this fact. In 1820-1821, the first documented courthouse was built and it served Warren County until it was destroyed by fire in 1909. The present courthouse replaced it upon completion in 1910. It was the work of Walter Chamberlain, an architect in Birmingham, Alabama, responsible for at least two other Georgia courthouses.
National Register of Historic Places
This gristmill was built on Ten Mile Creek in 1859 by Dr. J. W. Herring (1823-1911), who named it Rose Hill Mill. Dr. Herring was a physician by trade, but was also a well-known amateur engineer, having built several covered bridges in Upson County and vicinity, including the Auchumpkee Creek Covered Bridge. Notably, Rose Hill Mill was turbine operated, as opposed to the more common water-wheel system.
The mill was purchased in 1887 by Dr. George Whitfield Telford Hannah (1841-1906), a Confederate veteran and leading Thomaston physician. Since then it has been known as Hannah’s Mill. The surrounding community, now absorbed by Thomaston, is also known as Hannah’s Mill.
D. P. Harrell was the next owner, presumably following Dr. Hannah’s death. Since 1932, it has been owned by the Joseph W. McDonald family. The mill closed in the 1970s.
National Register of Historic Places
This extraordinary vernacular Queen Anne/Folk Victorian cottage is a great example of local craftsmanship being applied to a simple central hallway form. That it has survived so largely intact is a testament to the work, in my opinion. [The photograph dates to 2015 but the house was still standing when I went through Bowersville a couple of years ago].
Bowersville Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Alfred Dearing began construction on this house around 1860, and after work was interrupted by the Civil War, completed it in the late 1860s or early 1870s. It was sold in 1878 and after passing through several owners, became the home of leading Athens banker John Julian Wilkins in 1905. The Classical Revival landmark is among the grandest homes on South Milledge Avenue.
National Register of Historic Places