Franklin House

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Franklin House
National Register of Historic Places
Franklin House in 1936

Franklin House in 1936

Franklin House (Georgia)
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
location Athens , Clarke County , Georgia
Coordinates 33 ° 57 '28 "  N , 83 ° 22' 35"  W Coordinates: 33 ° 57 '28 "  N , 83 ° 22' 35"  W.
Built 1845-60
Architectural style Federal Style , Greek Revival
NRHP number 74000667
The NRHP added December 11, 1974

The Franklin House is a three storey historic building of bricks in 464 to 480 East Broad Street in Athens , Georgia . It was built in three different phases between 1845 and 1860. Originally the antebellum building was a commercial building with a hotel on the upper floors; from 1865 to 1972 it was used as a tool shop. On December 11, 1974, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places . In the 1980s it was renovated and converted into an office building.

description

The architecture of the house features elements of both Federal Style and Greek Revival . It has a gable roof with gables at the ends of the ridge. Doors on the second floor of the house once opened onto a porch and a pedestrian bridge, but these have not been preserved. In 1886 a cast-iron shop front was installed on the ground floor .

history

The land for the building belonged to the University of Georgia and was bought by William L. Mitchell at auction ; Mitchell was one of the most famous hotel owners of his day in the area and already ran a hotel called Mitchell House . In this building, the business premises were originally on the ground floor; the Franklin Hotel was not built on the upper floors until later. Silversmith Asaph K. Childs had a shop on the first floor, and other early tenants serving at Franklin House included daguerreotype supplier RL Wood & Co. and dentist O. Munsen. The structure was later sold to John W. Nicholson for $ 17,000 . On July 15, 1871, the building then belonged to Nicholson, a fire burned on the second and third floors of the building that resulted in property damage of more than $ 1,000, but it was the press reports of the “almost superhuman energy of the firemen “Thanks to them who acted promptly and effectively at the scene of the fire and brought the fire under control within 90 minutes.

The hotel closed in 1865 and the building was subsequently only used by the Childs-Nickerson Company, which was incorporated as the Athens Hardware Company in 1889 and remained in it until 1972. That year the building was found to be unstable and was due for demolition, but in 1973 the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation began raising funds to buy the house. The foundation raised $ 75,000, with a grant from then Governor Jimmy Carter . To stabilize the building, they applied for a grant from the National Park Service and received $ 30,000 from them. Hugh Fowler, a local businessman, bought the structure in 1977 and began renovating it. He later sold it to Broad Street Associates of Tucker , Georgia, under whose ownership the renovation was completed and office space arose in the house. The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation recognized the investors in 1983 because they rated renovation and remodeling as "exceptional".

Historical classification

The Historic American Buildings Survey has documented the building under number GA-1122 . On December 11, 1974, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places; It was classified as a local Historic Landmark on March 6, 1990.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Franklin House ( English ) Carl Vinson Institute of Government. Archived from the original on August 18, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 31, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / iep.cviog.uga.edu
  2. ^ A b John Linley: The Georgia catalog, Historic American Buildings Survey: a guide to the architecture of the state . U of Georgia P, 1982, ISBN 9780820306148 , p. 266.
  3. ↑ Ernest C. Hynds: Antebellum Athens and Clarke County, Georgia . U of Georgia P, 2009, ISBN 9780820334462 , p. 141.
  4. ↑ Kenneth Frederick Marsh, Blanche Marsh: Franklin Hotel . In: Athens: Georgia's Columned City . Cherokee Publishing Company, Atlanta 1979, ISBN 0-87797-048-3 , p. 19.
  5. ↑ Frances Taliaferro Thomas, Mary Levin Koch: A Portrait of Historic Athens and Clarke County . U of Georgia P, 2009, ISBN 9780820330440 , p. 43.
  6. ↑ Advertisements (English) . In: Southern Banner , February 22, 1849, p. 3. 
  7. ↑ Kenneth L. Coleman: Confederate Athens . U of Georgia P, 2009, ISBN 9780820334387 , pp. 153-154.
  8. ↑ Fire at the Franklin House (English) . In: Southern Banner , July 21, 1871, p. 3. 
  9. ^ The Athens Hardware Company: Giant Leader in Business World (English) . In: Athens Banner , December 20, 1902, p. 22. 
  10. ↑ Frances Taliaferro Thomas, Mary Levin Koch: A Portrait of Historic Athens and Clarke County . U of Georgia P, 2009, ISBN 9780820330440 , p. 214.
  11. ↑ Frances Taliaferro Thomas, Mary Levin Koch: A Portrait of Historic Athens and Clarke County . U of Georgia P, 2009, ISBN 9780820330440 , p. 290.

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