www.shchs.org
SPARTA HANCOCK
COUNTY
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
OLD
JAIL, 526 COURT STREET
SPARTA
,
GEORGIA
31087
Welcome
to the Sparta Hancock County Historical Society Website.
President –
Dan Holtz
Vice
President – David Murray
Secretary
– Linda Holtz
Treasurer
– Gaynelle Cochran
Genealogy
– Trudy Lewis
Board
Member – Nancy Stephens
Board
Member – Helen Martin
Immediate
Past President (Ex-Officio) – Catherine Cook
Publicity
– Jean Volkmann
Hancock
County
is located in central
Georgia
bounded by Greene, Putnam,
Baldwin
,
Washington
, Glascock,
Warren
, and
Taliaferro
Counties
. It was formed from Washington
and Greene counties in 1793. The
first court in Hancock county was held in the home
of John Whatley in 1794. This
home is still standing and known as the four mile store.
Sparta
became the county seat in 1795.
Hancock
County
has been the home of many schools over the years.
The
Mt.
Zion
Academy
run by the Bemen Brothers.
The
Sparta
Female
Model
School
on
Maiden Lane
where two of the old dormitories still stand.
This just names a very few of the fine schools.
A
little about us.
We meet once a quarter with some type of program or perhaps a field
trip. Our annual dues are $10.00
per year and are due the first of each year.
We have a quarterly newsletter which will tell of all coming events as
well as a financial statement for the Society.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call on any one of
the officers or board members.
COMPLETED
PROJECT!!!!!!
We
have completed the roof on the
Mt.
Zion
Church
thanks to Mr. John Cleaveland and his crew.
These guys did a really great job and charged us only for materials and
$1,000. for labor.
Thank you to David Williams and the late Robert Smith for their $500.00
donation towards the roof. We
still need to do some work on the inside and paint the outside.
The front steps also need some repair.
There are also some windows panes that need to be replaced, and we will
be replacing them with old wavy glass. We
have got to check into it some more, but we understand that there may be some
grants available to help us out. Most
grants require either some in-kind services or some matching funds, so we’ll
keep you posted.
UPCOMING
PROJECT
The
Graves Barn - Corner of Boland and Adams Streets
The
Graves
barn also needs some help. At
present it is sitting in a very wet area.
We hope to jack it up and put in a new foundation, but that is in the
“how are we going to do this” pile.
OUR
TOUR OF HOMES WAS A SUCCESS!!!!
On
Saturday May 22, 2004,
about 175 visitors toured historic homes in downtown
Sparta and we took in just under $2,000!
We have received feedback about things we need to improve, so we will make
those changes for the next tour. Watch the site for more info.
SOME
of the homes on the tour were the Alston-Wiley house, the
Haynes-Wiley-Hutchings house, the Bird-Pierce-Campbell house, the
Harley-Harris-Rives house, the Burwell-Goss house, the home of David and Zel
Murray, and Larry and Gaynelle Cochran. The old jail, the
Graves
barn, and Pierce
Memorial
Church
were also on tour. Bill Moffatt gave a lecture about Sparta and Hancock
County.
Thanks to all of our homeowners who put their homes on
tour. Much work
went into getting these houses ready.
Next
Meeting and field trip to be announced soon.
HARLEY-HARRIS-RIVES
HOUSE
The
Harley-Harris-Rives House - 720 Elm Street
This
home is located at
720 Elm Street. This house was built as a
wedding gift for William Harley and Mary Battle.
House and gardens are presently being restored.
ALSTON-WILEY HOUSE
The
Alston-Wiley House - 509 Maiden Lane
This
house at
509 Maiden Lane
was built prior to 1820 by Robert West Alston.
The front of the house was changed by Captain Richard Bolling Baxter.
He put a bay window where the original entrance to the house had been
on the
Short St.
side. This house has a
wonderful warm, inviting feeling.
BIRD-PIERCE-CAMPBELL
HOUSE
The
Bird-Campbell-Pierce House - Corner of Broad Street and Maiden Lane
At
the corner of Broad Street
and Maiden Lane
stands the Bird-Pierce-Campbell house. This
house was supposedly built by Wilson Bird around 1830.
The house is presently being restored.
Be sure and check out the wonderful “passion flower” medallions and
plaster crown molding.
TERRELL-STONE HOUSE
The
Terrell-Stone House - 893 Jones Street
At
839 Jones Street
stands the Terrell-Stone house. The
home was built circa 1820 by Dr. William Terrell.
Dr. Terrell established the first fully endowed chair of agriculture in
the United States
at the University
of
Georgia. In addition to the home, a
granite kitchen stands in the rear, and a billiard room that has been turned
into an office to the side. The
home is currently being restored. This house will not be open to the tour, but
we can tour the grounds.
OLD JAIL
The
Old Jail - Corner of Adams and Court Streets
The
old jail is located on the corner of
Adams Street
and Court Street. It has recently
been restored.
HAYNES-WILEY-HUTCHINS HOUSE
The
Haynes-Wiley-Hutchins House - 513 Maiden Lane
This
home is located at 513 Maiden Lane. The left wing was built first
circa 1800. The right wing was
added around 1820. The home is
presently being restored. Be sure
to look at the window trim in the parlor.
BURWELL-GOSS HOUSE
The
Burwell-Goss House - Intersection of Burwell and Hamilton Streets
This
house is located at the intersection of Burwell Street
and Hamilton Street. It was built in 1906 by William
H. Burwell. It is currently being
restored.
BURDICK-MURRAY
HOUSE
The
Burdick-Murray House - Corner of East Adams and East Broad Streets
Built circa 1903-1906 by the Burdick family who sold general
merchandise in a store at the corner of Spring St and Broad St
where Nicky’s Pizza was located. In
the late 1940’s early 1950’s served as the Lanier funeral parlor and the
family lived upstairs. The house
is located at the corner of Adams Street
and East Broad Street.
Be sure and see the beautiful
stained glass in the house and the tombstone floor in the garage.
BURDICK-COCHRAN
HOUSE
The
Burdick-Cochran House - 344 East Adams Street
The
Burdick family lived in this house prior to building the house next door (The
Burdick-Murray House, please see above). When their family grew to
include six children they outgrew this house. The house has a butler's
pantry, root cellar, and sleeping porch. The floors downstairs are oak
and upstairs heart pine. It is presently being lovingly restored.
GENERAL
RAMBLINGS
One
feature we hope to do periodically is little history items on anything
pertaining to
Hancock
County
and
Sparta
. Stories of people, houses, places,
anything at all you would like to submit.
Please contact Nancy Stephens at 706-444-8201 or nancy@mylink.net.
This time, because I’m putting this together and I have nothing else
to put in, I’ll tell you about my house.
I
bought my house in Culverton in the summer of 2001.
It had been vacant for about 15 years and, of course, needed a roof but
that’s the story of any old house I’ve ever owned.
I had heard my kitchen used to be an old store and that the
Culverton
Academy
used to stand on the back of my property.
Of course I took off to the courthouse to see what I could find out.
I
have never seen so much information in deeds before.
I found out that Jeff C. Smith bought the old Culver and Connel
store lot (the store having been turned into a dwelling house per the deed) on
November 12, 1909
for $416.00. Yes!
The kitchen and dining room were an old store.
Then on
December 16, 1912
Jeff Smith bought the old Academy lot “on which the
Culverton
Academy
had stood for over 50 years” for $50.00.
Well, that answered a lot of questions.
Now I knew why my house was so close to the road, why the back section
was older than the front, and why my lot was such a weird shape.
Then
Johnny Smith gave me a picture of the old
Culverton
Academy
. In the picture on the front of
the academy was the same trim that was on the front of my house.
I dug a little more at the courthouse and found out that in 1860 Hardy
Culver had given an easement to the
Culverton
Academy
for a road to the school because an upstairs had been added for a Masonic
lodge. Well, the trim looked like
it may have been added a little later than 1860 by about 20 years.
But that got me thinking. I
had crawled under the “new” part of the house for some reason or other and
noticed that one side of the house has sills that are hand hewn and they are
huge. The other side of the house
is balloon framed. Also hanging
from one of the sills is a huge hook. This
makes me wonder if maybe half of the “new” part of the house wasn’t
built from parts of the old
Culverton
Academy
, and the sills were pulled up here and set in place.
Wow!
I had no idea I would find all this out and put all this together from
a trip to the courthouse and looking at a few deeds.
I thought I just had an old country Victorian cottage.
What a nice surprise.
Now
back to the old Culver-Connel store.
When I pulled the sheetrock down in the kitchen there were wonderful
wide pine boards underneath. The
beams are mortise and tenon (did I spell that
right?). The back door is
original with the original strap hinges.
In my pantry you can see were an old door was covered up that went into
the dining room which appears to be an addition to the store.
From the outside the dining room is the board and batten part of my
house. You can also see from the
outside where the front part of the house was built onto the dining room.
And
in addition to all of this, Jeff’s wife loved to garden.
So far I’ve found a fish pond and a flower pit that I’m very slowly
bringing back. She had a very
good eye for landscaping. The
yard around the house is terraced perfectly with beautiful plantings of
camellias, bulbs, and all kinds of things I haven’t discovered yet.
I just can’t wait to see what else is here.
The newest mystery is a round circle of dead grass about 6 feet across
that has sunk in some. It may be
an old well, but the last time I saw the same thing was at the
Graves
’ house and it was a fishpond that had been filled in.
I can’t wait to start digging!
No,
my house is not on tour this go around. You’ll
have to come back when we do one out in the county.
POSTCARDS
OF GOOD OLD
SPARTA
AND
HANCOCK
COUNTY
The
Historical Society presently has for sale reproductions of some of
Sparta
’s old postcards for $1.00 each. We
have the
Sparta
School, the Graves
house, and the John
D.
Walker
Home. We hope to have more soon,
hopefully in time for the tour. If
you have some you would allow us to scan and reproduce, it would be greatly
appreciated.
GENEALOGY
We
also have Trudy Lewis who is great with genealogy.
She does have to charge a fee for this, but she knows the courthouse
inside and out. You can contact
Trudy at 706-444-8366 or trudie137@yahoo.com .
PLEASE
ALSO CHECK OUT www.scenicbyway.org
AND www.rockmillplantation.com
AND www.friendsofcems.org
If
you have any questions, concerns, interesting tidbits, fieldtrip, program
ideas, or things you would like to see on the website, please do not hesitate
to call on us:
Dan Holtz, President 706-444-9957 laurohn@alltel.net
David Murray, Vice-President 706-444-5069 davidzel@bellsouth.net
Linda
Holtz, Secretary 706-444-9957 laurohn@alltel.net
Gaynelle
Cochran, Treasurer 706-444-0330
gaynelle@bellsouth.net
Trudy
Lewis, Genealogy 706-444-8366 trudie137@yahoo.com
Helen
Martin, Board Member 706-444-9810 helenhag@mylink.net
Nancy
Stephens, Board Member 706-444-8201 nancy@mylink.net
Catherine Cook, Immediate Past President (Ex-Officio) 706-444-6411
Jean
Volkmann, Publicity 706-444-8959 lmyjean@netscape.net