The Bird-Baldwin House, as this Federal style landmark is also known, is considered the oldest house in Savannah south of Liberty Street. Construction of the left side began in 1838 and the stuccoed right side was completed in 1860. The house was built for attorney Lewis Bird (1810-1838), a native of Effingham County, but he and his entire family were killed on 14 June 1838 in the explosion of the Steamship Pulaskioff the coast of North Carolina and never occupied the house. Bird’s mother, Sarah Zant Bird (c. 1777-1854), sold it to his law partner, a Mr. Baldwin.
The house was seized and occupied by General William T. Sherman’s staff in December 1864 during the Union Army’s occupation of Savannah.
Savannah National Historic Landmark District, National Register of Historic Places
The Old Sorrel-Weed House, also known as the Francis Sorrel House, was an early symbol for historic preservation in Savannah. It was designed and built between 1835-1840 in the Greek Revival style, with strong Regency influences, by Charles Cluskey for Mathurin Francois “Francis” Sorrel (1793-1870). Sorrel was an immigrant of French descent, born in the Dominican Republic. He was a longtime enslaver and transporter of enslaved people and a guardian of several free women of color. He married into the wealthy Moxley family of Virginia, first to Lucinda J. Moxley (1805-1827) in 1822. After her death from yellow fever, he married one of her sisters, Matilda Aminta Douglass Moxley (1806-1860). Their son, Gilbert Moxley Sorrel (1838-1901), was a Brigadier General for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Robert E. Lee was a good friend of Francis Sorrel’s, dating back to the 1830s, and was a guest in the home during late 1861 and early 1862.
The home was sold to prominent Savannah merchant Henry Davis Weed (1803-1875) in 1862 and his family retained ownership until 1914.
Savannah retailer A. J. Cohen, Sr., bought the home in 1941 and it remained in the family until the early 1990s. The first scene of Forrest Gump was filmed from the rooftop of the Sorrel-Weed House, and numerous ghost hunter programs have filmed here, as well. It is considered one of the most haunted places in Savannah. It is now a house museum.
Savannah National Historic Landmark District, National Register of Historic Places
David Ardis (1804-1872) and Eliza C. Gray Ardis (1804-1867) are the earliest known owners of this home, one of the few antebellum residences in Marietta to survive the Civil War. They regularly came to Marietta as a retreat from the hot summers of their native Edgefield, South Carolina, and moved here permanently circa 1850. Ardis Street in Marietta is named for this family. The house is now home to the Little & Smith Insurance Company.
Northwest Marietta Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
This house was built in the Greek Revival style circa 1851 for John Heyward Glover, Jr, most likely with the labor of enslaved people. It was restored and given its present Victorian appearance after a fire in the 1870s. Another fire in the 1930s destroyed the second floor and it was redesigned, with an altered roofline, by architect Montgomery Anderson.
John Heyward Glover, Jr. (1816-1859), originally a South Carolina rice planter, became a prominent local entrepreneur in Marietta, serving as its first mayor in 1852. He was instrumental in several early businesses in town, including a tannery and bank, with interest in a telegraph company.
Whitlock Avenue Historic District, National Register of Historic Places
The William Root House is a typical I-House form with a shed room at the rear (Plantation Plain), enhanced by a vernacular Greek Revival portico. Built circa 1845, it is one of the oldest houses in Marietta and an inspiring preservation success story. It was facing demolition when it was saved by Cobb Landmarks and now serves as a cultural and historic focal point. It was originally located two blocks east on the northeast corner of Church and Lemon streets and has been relocated twice. In 1893, the house was repositioned on its original lot. In 1989, it was relocated two blocks to its present location and restored. It is now an award-winning house museum, operated by Cobb Landmarks.
William Root (1815-1891), a native of Philadelphia, moved to Marietta in 1839, five years after the city’s founding. He began working as an assistant in William H. Kitchens’s drug store in Augusta in 1836, then relocated to Hamburg, South Carolina, in 1837. After a brief return to Philadelphia in 1838, he came back to Augusta in 1839 and then moved to Marietta to open a new drug and grocery store for Kitchens. On 15 September 1840, he married Hannah Rhemer Simpson (1807-1886).
The business grew quickly and Root became an influential pioneer citizen of Marietta. He helped establish St. James Episcopal Church. In 1844 he purchased the business from Kitchens and built this home about a year later. The Roots had five children (one son died as a toddler), and, according to the 1860 census, four enslaved people in their service. Cobb Landmarks has identified two of the enslaved by name: Lall Burge, who was likely a butler, or house servant, and Elsay Blake, also a domestic laborer.
With Atlanta and environs in the crosshairs of the Union armies, the Root family relocated to Washington, Georgia, in June 1864. They returned to a ruined Marietta on 15 July 1865, but fared better than many others, who lost everything. They were able to reoccupy their house. According to family papers, William Root noted, “Our dwelling, though damaged, was in tolerable condition.”
In 1866 William Root opened a new store on the Marietta Square, and owned the entire block bounded by Church, Ardis, Cherokee, and Lemon streets, the block on which the Root House originally stood. Marietta quickly rebuilt after the war and by the 1870s, Root’s sons joined him in business. He sold it to John R. Winters in 1884 and retired.
Eureka Church seen from the cemetery, 18 August 2013.
The cemetery associated with historic Eureka Church is the last remaining public landmark of The Level, a Black community near Hagan. The church collapsed circa 2018. A nice collection of vernacular memorials set Eureka Cemetery apart as a historic resource for Evans County. I am sharing random shots, including commercial markers, but focusing on the vernacular pieces.
A. J. Collin(s) (1886-1952)
I believe the name was misspelled on this memorial, as there are others buried here whose name is Collins.
Leasan Ray (1850?-29 June 1915)
Like many in this Freedmen’s congregation, Leasan Ray was likely born enslaved.
Mary Wright (1858?-25 March 1911)
The fallen marker notes that Mary Wright was aged 59 years at the time of her death.
Mary Rease (10 March 1868-27 June 1926)
This is one of the earlier commercially made memorials in the cemetery, featuring a dove.
Unfinished
This marker has no information, but was likely meant for a family.
Sarah Davis (Birth and death dates unknown)
The only information, other than the decedent’s name, notes that she was Bob Small’s sister.
Venus Bacon (2 January 1820-9 October 1889)
Venus Bacon’s marker is an early commercial form with stenciled lettering.
O. F. Kennedy (19 July 1877-15 September 1892)
The hearts were a nice addition on this handmade memorial.
Sammie Wright (23 May 1895-15 August 1958)
Mr. Wright was a Private, 52 Co, 157 Depot Brigade, World War I.
Illegible
I have tried to interpret the words on this memorial to no avail.
Unidentified
The red star likely denotes a Masonic affiliation.
York Jones (Birth date unknown-1935?)
All the Jones family memorials have a similar shape and were likely the work of the same maker. This small stone has faded badly.
Jim Jones (dates illegible)
I will try to add birth and death dates if I am able to interpret them. I believe they all may be children.
Mary Jones (1937-1938)
Like the memorial for Jim Jones, Mary Jones’s features the name in cursive.
The memorial for D. V. Richardson is perhaps the most notable work in the cemetery. It features hand lettering and an unusual symbol, seen in detail above. It appears to have something to do with carpentry or, perhaps, Masonry.
Elder Abraham Jackson was the patriarch of Jackson Town, a historically Black neighborhood near Collins, Georgia, and he and his family were among the earliest burials in what would become the Jackson Cemetery, still dominated by his descendants and cousins today. The cemetery is very well-maintained.
Elder Abraham Jackson (1837-17 April 1915) and Rilla Collins Jackson (1840-17 March 1915)
Born enslaved in Barnwell, South Carolina, Elder Jackson later served (1865-1866) in Co. C, 1st Regiment South Carolina Volunteer Infantry (Colored), which was redesignated Co. C, 33rd Regiment, United States Colored Troops. He married Rilla, whose last name remains unknown, in the 1850s.
Anna Collins, (Circa 11 October 1888-8 June 1904)
This memorial for Anna Collins, the very wife of Henry Collins, is the earliest grave I found in Jackson Cemetery. She may have been Elder Jackson’s sister-in-law.
Nellie Jackson (28 January 1862-23 June 1904)
Nellie was the wife of George Jackson. Her vernacular memorial, which has been repaired, is very similar to that of Anna Collins. It reads: Dear husbad (sic) and children. as you is now, once was I, and as I am now you must be. Remember death and follow me.
Richard Rose Goetchius (1814-1875) came to Columbus from New York in 1834 and quickly established himself as a prominent builder and architect. He built this grand Greek Revival cottage as a gift for his wife, Mary Ann Bennett Goetchius (1819-1878), upon their marriage in 1839. It originally stood at 11th Street and 2nd Avenue but was moved circa 1970 to save it from commercial development.
All six of the Goetchius children, five sons and a daughter, were born in the house. The two eldest sons died in the Civil War. Another son died in early childhood. One son became a Columbus lawyer and another a Presbyterian minister. Their daughter, Mary Goetchius McKinley, died in childbirth, and her daughter Mary McKinley Wellborn, eventually inherited the house. It remained in the family until 1969.
It has been completely restored by its new owners, who have transformed it into a popular gourmet restaurant.
The Cedars was built for Col. John Banks (1797-1870) in 1837. It got its name from the cedar trees which lined the long driveway that led to the house from the old Wynnton Road. The floor plan consisted of eight rooms with a hall running the length of the house. A dirt-floored basement, entered from the outside, was used as the slave quarters. The main house was built of handmade deep rose colored bricks covered with stucco. This was marked off in large rectangles to resemble blocks of stone. The four Ionic columns on the front portico are stuccoed brick. The roofline was changed in 1885, elevating a much flatter original configuration.
A prominent attorney, John Banks was a native of Elbert County and a pioneer settler of Columbus. His obituary in the 24 September 1870 edition of the Atlanta Constitution noted: “For a while he was a grocery merchant in Augusta, the firm name being Banks & Baird. He has resided near Columbus over thirty-five years, and was engaged in various business in this city – grocery, banking, manufacturing, besides farming extensively – and accumulated a large property, much of which escaped the casualties of war.”
According to the nomination form of this property to the National Register of Historic Places, Banks was involved in the Indian Wars and first visited Columbus at the behest of Governor Troup to accompany General LaFayette on his trip from Milledgeville to Alabama. He was a founder of the Planters and Mechanics Bank of Columbus and a co-owner, with John E. Dawson, of the Howard Cotton Mill. He and his wife Sarah A. Watkins Banks (1803-1881) had 12 children. Four of their sons died in Confederate service.
The antebellum Greek Revival plantation home of John Woolfolk (1781-1861) in Wynnton is one of the most significant surviving houses of early Columbus. Woolfolk and William L. Wynn were the first settlers of the Wynnton area. Woolfolk, a native of Virginia, first came to Augusta before he began acquiring land in Muscogee County in the 1820s. He owned large acreage on the north side of Wynnton Road and purchased the land on which he built this house in 1832, the same year he was elected to the Georgia legislature. The house is important in terms of architectural history, but also African-American history, as it is estimated that approximately 180 enslaved people were held here before Emancipation, according to historian Calvin Schermerhorn’s The Business of Slavery and the Rise of American Capitalism1815-1860. With his nephew, Austin Woolfolk he was a slave trader, who enslaved nearly 700 people in total. This gave rise to an urban legend suggesting the one of Woolfolk’s sons hunted down and killed slaves and buried them on the grounds or in the walls of the house, known in the legend as the House of a Thousand Cadavers. Of course, considering the value of the enslaved as property, this is highly unlikely. Perhaps the Woolfolk son was just particularly cruel.
Plate 119 from Domestic Architecture of the Early American Republic, the Greek Revival by Howard Major. J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1926. Public domain. No known restrictions.
Woolfolk’s daughters inherited his estate, which was already being subdivided to accommodate the growth of Wynnton, when he died in 1861. The property later passed to Judge William A. Little and was for a time known as the Little Place. In 1925, it was owned by Minnie J. Flournoy, who transformed it into the Colonial Apartments. She removed the original side porticoes, which have since been replaced, and added one-story wings to the house. This configuration (above) was documented in Howard Major’s seminal work Domestic Architecture of the Early American Republic: The Greek Revival (Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott, 1926).
