I Love to Tour Historic Districts!

My 15 year old needed to practice driving, so we drove over to Washington, Georgia one Saturday. Washington, Georgia is a beautiful small town and was founded in 1780. It was the first town in American named after George Washington. A large number of historic homes have been preserved. Washington is about one hour north of Augusta and 2 hours east of Atlanta. A GREAT PLACE TO RETIRE!

My daughters complained about the site-seeing - so I only grabbed one picture of a home. This federal style home (with greek revival porch and door) is known as Holly Court. http://www.hollycourtinn.com/.

Apparently, Jefferson Davis' wife waited for him, here, when he was 'on the run' after the South lost "The War." (For those of you not in the South, here is a bit of info- "The War" can only mean one war. Also, many older Southerners still refer to The War as, "the War of Northern Aggression.")

Washington has a plethora of Greek Revival homes. Most of the architecture in Washington is Plantation Plain, Greek Revival, Italianate, Victorian, and Federal styles.

Quick Southern Architecture Lesson:

Typically, Plantation Plainstyle, Federal, and Greek Revival are all antebellum, which means those houses were standing before and during the war.

Italianate and Victorian were built during and after reconstruction (Italianate -late 1800's, and Victorian around the turn of the century).

If you do not have time to drive deep into the heart of antebellum Georgia, then tour Washington, Georgia via a virtual tour .

Anyone need a home to restore? There are currently several historic homes for sale in Washington and surrounding Wilkes County, Georgia. (Most of these links have interior photos, as well!)

How about owning the home where the Confederate Gold was last spotted? Chennalt Plantation is currently for sale ($692,000).

Then there is the Helen Hodgson home c.1796 for $275,000.

There were no Civil War battles fought in the Washington area, but there was a Revolutionary War battle that was quite decisive in declaring Georgia a colonial hold.

And THAT is your history lesson for today!