Thomasville, GA, Mansions, and More

I’ve processed and identified almost all of the pictures I took of houses and mansions in Thomasville that we went to see last week.  I took a lot of pictures and put names to most of them.  Some of them were just not in the guidebook and had no name on the outside.  Most of them are owner occupied or businesses and not open to the public, but there is a little history on most of them along with a pic and map numbers so I could keep track of where I took pics.  We only got to a little more than half of the houses and a little bit of downtown, but after Pebble Hill, we did good to see as much as we did.  During the afternoon, we had really good salads at the Ella Blue Cafe.  The owner supposedly named it after John Travolta’s daughter, but he spelled the “Bleu” wrong.  Ooops.

Had to take a pic of this shop downtown!  LOL  Pradas, anyone?

The first place we stopped was Strawbridge House, built in 1899 in Colonial Revival style, now occupied by a Neurology Center.

This is the Forbes Cottage, patterned after an English cottage and built in 1891.

This is the Charles Hebard house built in 1899 in the Neoclassical style.  The house was pretty overgrown and appeared to be empty.

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For his son, Charles Hebard built next door to his home the Charles S. Hebard House.  This was also built in 1899 and is nicknamed the Steamboat House.  This is another Neurology office.

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Between the two houses was a huge bamboo grove.

All Saints Episcopal Church was built in 1881 and is the oldest original church in Thomasville, though not in its original place. .

Balfour House was built in 1900.  Russel and I loved the rounded two-story porch sticking out one end.

The James Watt House was finished in 1893.

This is the side entrance of the McIntyre House.  Got the name off a sign on the door, not in the book.

The David Harrell House was originally built in 1853 and extensively added to over the years.

Had a dickens of a time identifying the Bruce-Driver House.  They painted it since the brochure when it was light brown!  Love the rounded porch and steps.

The Paxton House was built in 1884 and is a beautiful example of Victorian Gothic.  The Munsters would be happy there!  It is now a B & B.

Right next door is another Victorian Gothic, the Burbank Cottage, built in 1875.  It was originally barn red!

The Ransom Reid House was built in 1854. 

 

The John Dyson house was built in 1854 as a honeymoon cottage for newlyweds.  Some cottage, eh?

The Royal Miller House was built in 1903 after the style of the Greenwood Plantation, inspiration for Twelve Oaks in Gone With the Wind. 

The Hardaway House was built in 1856 and was home to the first mayor of Thomasville.

The last house I want to share with you is the Lapham-Patterson House, built in 1885.  This house is done in the Queen Anne style and is a real “painted lady” of the Victorian era.

Those are my favorites.  I have more pics but they were nothing special to share.  We’ll have to go back someday and plan to spend more time, maybe in one of the many B & B’s.  It was a full day in Georgia, taking in Pebble Hill Plantation, all these houses and a rose garden before heading back to Tallahassee. 

Thanks for stopping by. Comments always welcome.

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Old Oak and Museum in Thomasville, GA

Before I get into the mansions of Thomasville, I’ll do a short post on the Thomas County Museum of History and the Old Oak that has been there since around 1680, making it more than 325 years old!

The circumference of the trunk is 26.5 feet! Makes me look small!

The Thomas County Museum of History is in a home built in 1923 in the Jefferson Revival style. Sort of like a small Monticello.

On the grounds there is an old cabin, the Smith Log House, built in 1860.

The docent took us inside and showed us the kitchen, breezeway between the main cabin and kitchen and a bedroom. Nine people lived in this one-bedroom cabin and it was considered a nice place as the kitchen was separate and the floors were wood! It had glass windows, too! The bed frame was one of those rope beds that you tighten so you can sleep tight!

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For my quilting sister, I took this pic of a very old sunflower quilt on a frame. If she tells me a different name for the pattern, I’ll edit this post. Edited: Betsy corrected me to say it was a "Grandma's Flower Garden" quilt. My friend Fyrne's Mom did one when she was in her 90's!

Also on the grounds are these old farm implements and the 1893 Metcalf Courthouse.

Couldn’t spend much time wandering. Russel was sitting in the truck in the sun.

That’s it for this post. Thanks for stopping by. Comments always welcome.

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Pebble Hill Plantation, GA

Wednesday morning, on our way up to Thomasville, Georgia, we stopped for an hour or so at Pebble Hill Plantation.  We didn’t have time or energy to tour the whole place (it would take at least a whole day), so we ended up taking the docent tour of the main house’s main floor and wandered around a bit. 

First a bit of history.  Wealthy industrialists from northern cities started buying up plantations around Thomasville, then the terminus of the railroad, as winter homes for sporting interests like hunting, fishing, riding, etc.  Crops or cattle were not the norm on these properties.  Pebble Hill’s main home was destroyed by fire in 1934 and rebuilt by Kate Hanna Ireland Harvey.  She died in 1936 and left it to her daughter, Elizabeth “Miss Pansy” Ireland Poe who continued the restoration, planning to leave the home as a museum.   Miss Pansy endowed the plantation as a museum, which it remains today.

The Visitors’ Center is located in the Cow Barn.  Miss Pansy played at raising a dairy herd.  I should live in such a Cow Barn!

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After paying for our tickets, we wandered down to the Main House, stopping first to admire the wooden school house, built for use by the children of visitors and employees on the plantation.

No pictures allowed inside the home, filled with Pansy’s collection of sporting art, dog and horse figurines, paintings, statues, etc.  Most notably, the house was full of Audubon prints.  Here’s me at the front of the house.

Here’s the front door out to the gardens.

Back door out to rose garden and the pool.

Side door at the end of the loggia.

This is the old Plantation Store where Pansy sold milk from the PHP dairy to employees and townspeople .

If the house and its 16 bedrooms was full, this is the overflow cottage.

This is one of the magnolias that was in bloom.  Most of the trees were just ramping up, but there were a few full blooms like this one.

I love the way the sun shines down through the Spanish moss on this live oak.

On the way out, I took this pic of the alee of live oaks.

That’s it for Pebble Hill Plantation.  Well worth the stop and the price of admission.  More can be found about Pebble Hill here.

I think that’s enough for today.  I still have to blog my favorites of the Thomasville homes.  

Thanks for stopping by. Comments always welcome.

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Marianna-Greenwood Houses.jpg

I finally finished identifying and renaming the pictures I took on our mini-vacation to the Florida Panhandle and Georgia last week.  I spent Wednesday morning wandering by myself around Marianna while Russel did a demo for the DOT.  The Chamber of Commerce in Marianna is in the Russ House!  The town has put together an excellent Self-Guided Tour brochure with photos, maps and bits of history on the historic homes featured in the tour.  I started at the Russ House which was built in 1895.  It’s been through some hard times, but has been restored beautifully.

 

I love this rounded, two-story porch.

Bits of the house like this nook have been furnished in the style of the home.  Most of the house is offices and conference rooms.  This was the only house in Marianna open to the public.

Across the street from the Russ House is the 1840’s house, now an accounting firm.

Milton House was built in 1909, but looks much older and was built in the style of the ante-bellum houses it copies.  The house was built by the the granddaughter of John Milton, Gov. of Florida during the Civil War and his descendants continue to live in the home.

This is the Bowles-Kimbrough House built in1896.

After I picked up Russel, we drove north a few miles to Greenwood to see the houses included in the Marianna tour book.  Only a few were as listed and one was absent altogether, not there at all any more.  Probably burned down like so many of these older homes.  The home knows as Great Oaks was still there, on the way into town.  The house was built in 1860 as the Bryan Plantation and remains Jackson County’s “most handsome example of antebellum architecture.” 

The highway along the home was lined with, what else, great old live oak trees.

In Greenwood, there were a couple of neat old houses.  First, the Willis House, built by Dr. and Mrs. R. A. Willis in 1917.  Mrs. Willis wanted nine bedrooms, each with their own bath, so all her children and grandchildren could live with them forever!

The last house we stopped at in Greenwood was the Erwin House, badly in need of some tender loving care.  It was built in the 1830’s and considered the oldest house in Jackson County.

That’s it for the houses we looked at in Florida.  I’ll work on the Georgia houses next.  If you want to know more about any of the houses shown, feel free to ask.  I have brochures!

Thanks for stopping by. Comments always welcome.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- *** ((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨)) -:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)