This Folk Victorian house was built by A. M. Mauldin. It stayed in the family for over a century and after Mr. Mauldin’s death, his daughter-in-law operated a millinery shop on the property. It now serves as Clarkesville’s Visitors Center.
National Register of Historic Places
W. R. Asbury built this home and named it Oak Heights. Later it served as the Clarkesville hospital and was a boarding house known as the Charm House, hence its present designation. It has also been home to a bed and breakfast and a restaurant. It’s a grand Neoclassical house and sits back from Washington Street on a beautifully manicured lot.
Washington-Jefferson Street Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This house was relocated from Turnerville around 1900 and served as a boarding house for many years. It also served as the preschool for the adjacent First Presbyterian Church for a time.
Washington-Jefferson Street Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Reverend William Quillian organized the First Presbyterian Church of Clarkesville in 1832, with seven charter members. They met in the Methodist church in their early years. The present structure was built in 1848 by Jarvis Van Buren, first cousin of President Martin Van Buren. The dedication sermon was delivered by the Reverend Nathan Hoyt, grandfather of First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson. Members of the congregation included two Attorneys General, John McPherson Berrien and Amos T. Akerman. In 1907, when part of the church lot was sold to W. R. Asbury, the building was turned around from its location facing Jefferson Street to its present location.
Washington-Jefferson Street Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This was first home to Union Congregational Church, founded in 1892 by an Ohio-born minister in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union hall. The early members were from New England and the Midwest and part of the prohibition settlement that became Demorest. As the Congregationalists never had a large membership, they merged with Demorest Methodist Church in 1947 and remain active today.
Demorest Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
A very small historic downtown remains in Demorest and the existing structures have been nicely restored and are in use. The building on the right, the Starkweather Building or “Brick Block”, is the oldest, built in 1890. The other two-story building is the Chrisler Building, constructed in 1916. It is now home to Piedmont College’s Mason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art. Sweet Breads restaurant is just beyond it.
Demorest Commercial Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
Built as the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1902, this structure was significantly altered upon its acquisition by the Demorest Women’s Club in 1954. [The National Register designation is for the Women’s Club, not the church]. Besides the removal of the steeple and chimneys, the interior and foundation were also modified to fit the needs of the club. The Demorest Women’s Club was founded in 1934 and for many years held meetings in member’s homes. Evie Gillespie initiated the effort to acquire the church building after the Men’s Civic Club turned it down, citing it was too dilapidated.
An interesting footnote: Soong Mei-ling [宋美齡] who became Madame Chiang Kai-shek, was hosted by a member of the Methodist Church while she was in eighth grade in 1909-1910. She attended services and Sunday School here.
National Register of Historic Places
Completely surrounded today by the beautiful campus of Piedmont College, this Folk Victorian house with Queen Anne elements, built by C. R. Pyle, is one of the last surviving relics of a planned prohibition community that never completely materialized. In 1889, a corporation called the Demorest Home, Mining and Improvement Company acquired the vast estate of Henry A. Rosignol for the purpose of creating a model town free from alcohol and vice. The community was to be named Demorest, for prominent prohibitionist and philanthropist William Jennings Demorest of New York. A depression in the 1890s eventually led to the bankruptcy of the corporation but the town grew in spite of it.
After C. R. Pyle sold the house to L. H. Laughton in 1899, a procession of owners followed until it was purchased by Ross Davis in 1939. As early as 1896, during the Pyle’s ownership, rooms were rented in the house by students and faculty at the Demorest Normal School and the J. S. Green Collegiate Institute (now Piedmont College). This tradition continued into the late 20th century. The Davis family always made the house a welcoming space to students and to the community for a host of events and it remains one of the most beloved landmarks in Demorest.
National Register of Historic Places
Alexander Robert Lawton built this as a summer home [christened ‘Seventh Heaven’] between 1884-1885 and his boosterism helped make Mt. Airy a popular resort area. Lawton was a Confederate general and attorney who later served as president of the Augusta & Savannah Railroad. Upon General Lawton’s death in 1898, the family’s holdings in Mt. Airy were sold and the house came into the possession of Caroline Thompson, who owned it until 1911.
Mrs. Gene Keen-Knight of Vicksburg, Mississippi, apparently didn’t live in the house but maintained it as a rental property. It was during her ownership that baseball legend Ty Cobb lived here. He was having a house built on a large piece of property nearby and called the Lawton place home for a few years, in the 1950s. After Mrs. Keen-Knight’s death the house was sold yet again and several owners have followed. Most recently, it served as an event space known as Lawton Place Manor.
National Register of Historic Places
Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Cornelia Kiwanis Club with Tudor influences, the Cornelia Community House is one of the largest such gathering places I’ve encountered in Georgia.
David S. Cuttino, Jr., was the architect. It is the centerpiece of a 33-acre public park and was formally dedicated in May 1937.
It’s unusual in that the rear of the building holds much more architectural interest than the front.
National Register of Historic Places