Colonial Architecture in Georgia

by Denise Weimer
deniseweimerbooks.webs.com

As Georgia got a late start to the other colonies, it’s not surprising that few 1700s buildings dot our landscape today. Begun in 1732 by James Oglethorpe as a relocation destination for those in England’s debtors’ prisons and a refuge for persecuted Protestants, Georgia received its royal charter in 1752. Savannah and Augusta flourished as its earliest cities. 

Christian Camphor House

In towns, the first permanent dwellings reflected the colonists’ memories of home: side-gabled houses with a chimney at one end or New England saltbox style, with the side-gabled roof extending at a gentle pitch above an attached rear shed (example: Christian Camphor House, 1760-7, Savannah). In the country and on the ever-westering frontier, single pen log homes like the Big Holly Cabin in Clarkesville (see example), or double-pen with a connecting breezeway known as “dogtrot” style, became common. Frontiersmen constructed these most commonly of heart pine, but sometimes of poplar or cypress on the coast. Sometimes the logs were only hewn on one side and were pegged together if square-head nails proved unavailable. English settlers often used dovetail notching, while Cherokee cabins used saddle notching. Chinking consisted of dried mud, pebbles and horsehair.

Big Holly Cabin

Finer Georgia homes of the late 1700s represented several styles:

·         Georgian Colonial emphasized symmetry and box shape, often featuring five windows across the top with shutters and a paneled front door framed by simple columns, often flattened. A gambrel roof included front and rear porches. (Example: 1797 Ezekiel Harris House, Harrisburg; and 1771 stucco over brick “Olde Pink House” aka James Habersham Jr. House, Savannah.)

Olde Pink House

Ezekiel Harris House

·         Federal Colonial also featured a prominent square or rectangular shape with Palladian or Venetian windows and an interior, curved, iron-railed stair. (Example: 1790 Grey House built by Jacob Callaway near Washington.)

·        

Wild Heron Plantation

Plantation Plain homes were two rooms wide and one room deep, situated on a raised brick basement with a pitched shed roof over the front and sometimes rear porch. (Example: 1756 Wild Heron Plantation, outside Savannah.) Most Plantation Plain homes were constructed 1790-1850, with most examples remaining in Piedmont Georgia.

·         One unique style of Colonial architecture exists near Augusta, Georgia in 1791 Meadow Garden, home to George Walton, the Son of Liberty who at 26 became the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence. The militia colonel wounded in the Siege of Savannah retired to his two-and-a-half-story retreat on a brick basement in Sands Hill Cottage style similar to those in the Summerville area of Augusta. (See example.)

Meadow Garden

·        Another unique form of Colonial architecture stands as a solid reminder of the vanished Quaker settlement at Wrightsborough, the 1785 Old Rock House built by Thomas Ansley in Delaware Valley style. (See example.)

Looking for your own piece of Colonial Georgia? Buy the Georgia Trust endangered-listed 1798 Smith-Turner House for a mere $65,000 in Lexington, not far from this writer’s area. (See example.) But bring a little pocket change for this fixer-upper! 

Smith-Turner House - Buy Me!

A Tour of Benefit Street by Lisa Norato

Benefit Street, Providence, Rhode Island

Benefit Street on the east side of Providence, Rhode Island, is known as the “Mile of History” for the 1.2 miles of historic homes and buildings that line its sidewalks.  Considered an outdoor museum, Benefit Street is a popular tourist attraction, and today I’d like to take you on a virtual tour.  So lace up your sneakers because those cobblestone sidewalks can get a bit unsteady.

"A Benefit for All"

We will be heading north, focusing on early American architecture, although there are many Victorian era homes as well.

Providence was founded by Roger Williams in the early 1600s, when he was expelled from Massachusetts for his religious views.  Almost 150 years later, the city had risen from a religious settlement cut out of the wilderness to a thriving mercantile center, with many making their fortunes trading rum, molasses and even slaves.  These wealthy merchants needed a place to build that reflected their affluent status.  In the 1780s, the hilly area overlooking the Providence River was deemed a prime residential spot for its lofty location above the City.  What was originally called Back Street was widened and the street renamed Benefit because it was deemed to be "a benefit for all."

 

Nightingale-Brown House c.1792

One of the most notable homes of the period is the Nightingale-Brown House built by a wealthy merchant in 1792.  At 19,000 square feet, it is one of the largest 18th century wood frame houses still standing in North America.  I especially love the captain’s walk on the rooftop which would have overlooked the merchant ships sailing into the Providence River.

Stephen Hopkins House c. 1707

This is the Stephen Hopkins house, built in 1707 and occupied by the merchant and ship builder from 1743 to 1785.  The house plaque reveals a bit more about the Colonial man and reads, “Ten times Governor of Rhode Island. Chief Justice of the Superior Court. Chancellor of Brown University. Member of the Colonial Congress. Signer of the Declaration of Independence.” General George Washington was a guest at the house on April 6, 1776.

What makes Benefit Street so special is that its historic character continues throughout the entire length of over one mile, not just in one or two buildings spaced here and there.  The homes have front doors that open right onto the sidewalk as was fashionable at the time, and in strolling down the street it is easy to imagine yourself back in time, as life was 150 years ago.

Isaac Bowen, Jr. House

Among the mansions and wealthy residences along Benefit Street are more modest dwellings in the Federal architecture style.  Though this Federal home doesn’t appear very modest to me.  The plaque by the door indicates that this was the home of Isaac Bowen, Jr. 1770-1804.

Thanks to the Providence Preservation Society, even simple structures bear plaques which indicate when they were built and who originally owned the house, like the home of Daniel Smith.  This house was originally built in 1750 in another area of Providence, but was moved by preservationists to Benefit Street in 1982.

Daniel Smith House c.1750

This was just a sampling of the architecture the street has to offer.  I hope you enjoyed our little stroll and learning about the history of Providence’s Benefit Street.  I wanted to share it with you, because I always enjoy walking along the street, envisioning what it would have been like living in the Colonial era.

Lisa Norato is the multi-published author of Prize of My Heart, an inspirational, seafaring historical from Bethany House, set during the Federal era. A life-long New Englander, Lisa lives in a historic village with homes and churches dating as far back as the eighteenth century