FORGOTTEN PLANTATION ARCHITECTURE of BURKE COUNTY, GEORGIA by PHILIP MILLS HERRINGTON (Under the Direction of Mark Reinberger) A
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FORGOTTEN PLANTATION ARCHITECTURE OF BURKE COUNTY, GEORGIA by PHILIP MILLS HERRINGTON (Under the Direction of Mark Reinberger) ABSTRACT The purpose of this thesis is to document the existence, appearance, and (if applicable) destruction of pre-1861 plantation residences within the antebellum boundaries of Burke County (including the upper portion of Jenkins County, established 1905). A poor rate of survival, shortage of records, and absence of significant research has allowed for the majority of these structures to fall from human memory. Much of the information found in these pages was the product of extensive research through primary sources, including several newspapers (with dates surveyed): the Augusta Chronicle (1800-1865), Waynesboro True Citizen (1882-1938), Waynesboro Expositor (1872-1873), Waynesboro News (1858-1859), and Waynesboro Independent South (1860-1863), as well as diaries, military records, and personal papers. It is hoped the result will serve the cause of preservation by providing a context for the interpretation of plantation dwellings and by advocating the conservation of surviving structures. INDEX WORDS: Georgia, Burke County (Ga.), Plantations, Architecture, Greek Revival, Vernacular, Antebellum, Preservation, Historic Buildings FORGOTTEN PLANTATION ARCHITECTURE OF BURKE COUNTY, GEORGIA by PHILIP MILLS HERRINGTON B.A., Berry College, 1999 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION ATHENS, GEORGIA 2003 2003 Philip Mills Herrington All Rights Reserved. FORGOTTEN PLANTATION ARCHITECTURE OF BURKE COUNTY, GEORGIA by PHILIP MILLS HERRINGTON Major Professor: Mark Reinberger Committee: John C. Waters Richard Westmacott Elizabeth A. Lyon Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2003 DEDICATION To Mama and Daddy iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1 THE DUST OF CIVILIZATION ......................................................................9 2 THE PLANTATION: CAPITALISM VS. ROMANTICISM........................16 3 EARLY ARCHITECTURE OF BURKE COUNTY ......................................22 4 THE GREEK REVIVAL IN BURKE COUNTY ...........................................45 5 THE FORGOTTEN PLANTATION...............................................................75 BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................................................................................85 APPENDICES A REFERENCES IN PRINT TO PLANTATION NAMES...............................88 B REFERENCES IN PRINT TO PLANTATION FIRES/DEMOLITION........90 C STATUS OF SURVIVING PLANTATION STRUCTURES ........................92 D TABLE OF PLANTATIONS IN ANTEBELLUM BURKE COUNTY ........93 v LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Map of Burke County, 1864................................................................................5 Figure 2: Map of Burke County, 1915................................................................................6 Figure 3: Map of Georgia, 1864 .........................................................................................7 Figure 4: Map of Georgia showing counties with major plantation resources...................8 Figure 5: Bellevue exterior, front facade ..........................................................................38 Figure 6: Bellevue interior................................................................................................38 Figure 7: Birdsville exterior, earlier portion of house ......................................................39 Figure 8: Birdsville first floor plan, earlier portion only ..................................................39 Figure 9: Birdsville stair case ...........................................................................................40 Figure 10: Elevation of Byne-Gresham house, front facade.............................................40 Figure 11: Joseph A. Shewmake house exterior...............................................................41 Figure 12: Joseph A. Shewmake house first floor plan ....................................................41 Figure 13: William Sapp house exterior, front façade......................................................42 Figure 14: William Sapp house first floor plan ................................................................42 Figure 15: Interior staircase of William Sapp house ........................................................43 Figure 16: William Sapp house, curved door in stair hall ................................................43 Figure 17: William Sapp house, plaster centerpiece.........................................................44 Figure 18: William Sapp house, planter ceiling ornamentation .......................................44 Figure 19: Buckhead Baptist Church................................................................................64 vi Figure 20: Old Church ......................................................................................................64 Figure 21: Bark Camp Baptist Church..............................................................................65 Figure 22: Bark Camp, side view of the front façade.......................................................65 Figure 23: Bark Camp, detail of entry, front façade.........................................................66 Figure 24: Hopeful Baptist Church...................................................................................66 Figure 25: Unidentified house on the Quaker Road .........................................................67 Figure 26: Street Perkins house, side façade showing chimneys......................................67 Figure 27: Street Perkins house, detail of front façade entry............................................68 Figure 28: Street Perkins house, gabled dormer ...............................................................68 Figure 29: Robert A. Murphey house, side façade ...........................................................69 Figure 30: Elevation of doorway, Robert A. Murphey house...........................................69 Figure 31: Fulcher house, prior to restoration and enlargement.......................................70 Figure 32: Fulcher house first floor plan ..........................................................................70 Figure 33: Fulcher house stair case...................................................................................71 Figure 34: Fulcher house rear façade showing additions..................................................71 Figure 35: Orris Grove......................................................................................................72 Figure 36: Orris Grove first floor plan..............................................................................72 Figure 37: Birdsville exterior, Greek Revival portion......................................................73 Figure 38: Birdsville first floor plan, illustrating enlarged structure................................73 Figure 39: Birdsville, detail of pilaster and entablature....................................................74 Figure 40: Carpenter Gothic side porches at Birdsville....................................................74 Figure 41: Fair Haven Church ..........................................................................................84 Figure 42: Fair Haven, detail of eaves..............................................................................84 vii INTRODUCTION In the American mind, the plantation exists in a limbo of memory, historical consciousness, and imagination. This mindset is a kind of netherworld of moonlight- illumined pathos that encompasses both the beautiful and the cruel, making the plantation an object of simultaneous admiration and contempt. Yet our fascination with the plantation has propelled it into the stratosphere of myth, and imagination has largely consumed memory and historical record. The mythical has been substituted for the actual, and slowly the real plantation has been forgotten. Largely ignored historically and architecturally, the plantations of Burke County, Georgia, have been devoured by fire, by time, and by historical apathy. The status of plantations elsewhere in Georgia is generally the same, although in Burke County the record is astonishingly bare considering Burke’s size, wealth, and location. Burke County was one of the eight original counties of Georgia, established in 1777; its high level of productivity, perpetual decline in white population until 1840, and steady rise in slave population indicate the presence of a developing plantation economy. Yet little remains of the plantation dwellings or outbuildings that were once such a dominant feature of the landscape. The obscurity of an institution that was once an integral part of Burke County makes the plantation an interesting and necessary subject for historic research. If the reader hopes to find within these pages a complete chronicle of the plantation architecture of Burke County, turn back now and hope for better things to 1 come. For the plantations of Burke