How well I remember my day in Washington, Georgia. I had no clue about how many beautiful and interesting homes Washington has until I spoke to Steve’s Kiwanis Club. Prior to speaking, Steve gave me a tour of seven historic homes that had something unique in common. All had been moved in total or in part to their current location. And moved for good reason. Arriving at Steve’s I met him and his wife, Eleanor. Steve had made a list of eight homes to visit, complete with a timetable an airline scheduler would envy. (One home would be unavailable to us.) I appreciated the tight scheduling. A book event back in Columbia that evening had me in a squeeze. Now, these mobile homes were not trailers or doublewides as we know them today, mind you. As Steve drove me to homes with names like Holly Court, Hollyhock, Woods Huff’s House, and Colley House, we talked of the old days. Our reflections, combined with Steve’s “mobile” home tour, amounted to a time capsule of a day.
BORN OUT OF NECESSITY I was in for a memorable day. Besides the star attractions, I’d see a millstone inlaid among bricks as a walkway centerpiece, a volume of Jericho, The South Beheld, by James Dickey and Hubert Shuptrine. I’d hear a deflating story about a letter Mrs. Jefferson Davis left the wartime owners of Holly Court was purloined during a home tour. I’d see Civil War artifacts and vintage oil paintings and remarkable old homes that share a unique heritage born out of necessity.
LEFT: HOLLY COURT IN WASHINGTON, GEORGIA; RIGHT: A HISTORICAL MARKER AT HOLLY COURT PHOTOS BY TOM POLAND
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