The Judge William Wilson House was an

antebellum Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern United States ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum ar ...

house in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. It was built on land in a community west of Atlanta that was then called Adamsville which Wilson had inherited from his father William "Dollar Mill" Wilson (1775–1839) in 1839, and as the area around it developed came to be located in the Fairburn Heights neighborhood, a suburban area west of the Perimeter (I-285). At the end, it was one of only a few remaining antebellum structures still standing in its original location within the Atlanta city limits. The house was built in the

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

style between 1856–1859 and was the main house of a

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

that, at twelve hundred acres, was one of the largest in the area. The house was used during the

Battle of Atlanta The Battle of Atlanta was a battle of the Atlanta Campaign fought during the American Civil War on July 22, 1864, just southeast of Atlanta, Georgia. Continuing their summer campaign to seize the important rail and supply hub of Atlanta, Uni ...

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

General

William Tecumseh Sherman William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), achieving recognition for his com ...

as a temporary headquarters. After the war, William Asbury Wilson (1824–1903) served as a representative in the

Georgia General Assembly The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each of the General Assembly's 236 members serve two-year terms and are directly ...

, as a justice of the inferior court in

Fulton County Fulton County is the name of eight counties in the United States of America. Most are named for Robert Fulton, inventor of the first practical steamboat: *Fulton County, Arkansas, named after Governor William Savin Fulton *Fulton County, Georgia *F ...

, and as the county's sheriff. The house remained in the Wilson family into the 1962 when the great grandson of the builder sold the property to the Holy Family Hospital who used it as housing for their nurses. Its final use was as a community center. By 2011 the house was disused, the roof was falling in and there were cracks in the stone walls. In that year it was added to the Atlanta Preservation Center's "Most Endangered Properties" list. The unannounced demolition of the house in December 2015 "came as a surprise" to the preservation community, who had hoped to stabilize the building until other plans could be made to save it.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, William, House, Judge Houses in Atlanta Antebellum architecture Greek Revival houses in Georgia (U.S. state) Houses completed in 1856 National Register of Historic Places in Atlanta Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) Demolished buildings and structures in Atlanta Buildings and structures demolished in 2015