historic house museum
A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that is preserved as a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a variety of ...
Taliaferro County, Georgia
Taliaferro County ( ) is a county located in East central Piedmont region of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,559, down from the 2010 census when the population was 1,717, making it the least populous cou ...
, in the eastern Georgia
Piedmont
Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...
.''Neat Pieces: The Plain-style Furniture of Nineteenth-century Georgia'' (University of Georgia Press, 1983), pp. 32–34. It was the home of
Alexander H. Stephens
Alexander Hamilton Stephens (February 11, 1812 – March 4, 1883) was an American politician who served as the first and only Vice President of the Confederate States of America, vice president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865, and l ...
, a prominent Georgia political figure who was a member of the
U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...
(1843–1853),
Vice President of the Confederate States of America
The vice president of the Confederate States was the second highest executive officer of the government of the Confederate States of America and the deputy to the President of the Confederate States of America, president of the Confederate States. ...
(1861–1865), and after the end of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives again (1873–1882) and
governor of Georgia
The governor of Georgia is the head of government of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the commander-in-chief of the state's Georgia National Guard, National Guard, when not in federal service, and Georgia State Defense Force, State Defense Fo ...
(1882–1883). Stephens resided in the home from 1839 until his death in 1883.Shearer Davis Bowman, ''Masters and Lords: Mid-19th-Century U.S. Planters and Prussian Junkers'' (Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 15. The home is now a museum and part of A. H. Stephens Historic Park, a Georgia state park maintained by the
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is an administrative agency of the U.S. state of Georgia.
Structure
The agency has statewide responsibilities for managing and conserving Georgia’s natural, cultural, and historical resource ...
and designated
historic district
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...
. The larger A. H. Stephens Historic Park contains tent and trailer sites, picnic sites, and fishing ponds, as well as a nature trail and rustic cabins, and was mostly built by the
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...
, beginning in 1933.
The structure was also known as Bachelor's Hall in 1859. The home was Stephens's "isolated haven," situated twenty miles away from
Washington, Georgia
Washington is the county seat of Wilkes County, Georgia, United States. Under its original name, Heard's Fort, it was for a brief time during the American Revolutionary War the Georgia state capital. It is noteworthy as the place where the Co ...
.William W. Freehling, ''The Road to Disunion, Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant, 1854–1861'' (Oxford University Press, 2007).
History and description
Stephens was born two miles north in a
log cabin
A log cabin is a small log house, especially a minimally finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first-generation home building by settl ...
on his father's farm; he was orphaned at the age of fourteen. Stephens purchased the estate in 1845 from the estate of Williamson Byrd, a relative of his stepmother.Georgia Writers' Project, ''Georgia: A Guide to Its Towns and Countryside'' (1940), p. 508. The building was the former family home, but "had been sold out from under the brothers when their father died." In 1872–1875, Stephens tore down the old house, except for two rear rooms, and erected the current structure, which is restored to its original appearance. The home is a simple two-story white
frame
A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent.
Frame and FRAME may also refer to:
Physical objects
In building construction
*Framing (con ...
house. It has a
hip roof
A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...
and a
veranda
A veranda (also spelled verandah in Australian and New Zealand English) is a roofed, open-air hallway or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front an ...
extending across its front. The first floor includes Stephens's bedroom, including original
walnut
A walnut is the edible seed of any tree of the genus '' Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. They are accessory fruit because the outer covering of the fruit is technically an i ...
furniture, a round table at which Stephens wrote, Stephens's
wheelchair
A wheelchair is a mobilized form of chair using two or more wheels, a footrest, and an armrest usually cushioned. It is used when walking is difficult or impossible to do due to illnesses, injury, disabilities, or age-related health conditio ...
, a repaired original flowered ingrain carpet, and wallpaper with blue and gold stripes. The dining room includes "massive chairs" replicated from a single remaining original chair. To the rear is the library, where Stephens wrote from 1868 to 1870 his ''Constitutional View of the Late War between the States''. Steps lead from the dining room to the second floor; at the top of the stairs is the "Tramps' Room," where many guests, including uninvited guests, often stayed. To the home's rear are restored outbuildings:
slave quarters Slave quarters were buildings or districts where enslaved people were housed. Slave quarters may refer to:
* Barracoon, temporary holding quarters for the transatlantic slave trade
* , housing for enslaved people in colonial Brazil
Colonial Bra ...
, a
wine cellar
A wine cellar is a storage room for wine in bottles or barrels, or more rarely in carboys, amphorae, or plastic containers. In an ''active'' wine cellar, important factors such as temperature and humidity are maintained by a climate control s ...
,
smokehouse
A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is curing (food preservation), cured with Smoking (cooking), smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.chickenhouse. At the time of
emancipation
Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure Economic, social and cultural rights, economic and social rights, civil and political rights, po ...
in 1864, Stephens owned thirty-one slaves, most of whom remained with him after the war's end. It was at Liberty Hall that Stephens was captured by Union Army forces from a detachment of the
4th Iowa Cavalry
The 4th Iowa Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Service
The 4th Iowa Cavalry was organized at Camp Harlan in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, beginning in September 1861, and mustered in for ...
, after which Stephens formally surrendered to
General
A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry.
In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...
Emory Upton
Emory Upton (August 27, 1839 – March 15, 1881) was a United States Army general and military strategist, prominent for his role in leading infantry to attack entrenched positions successfully at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House during th ...
and was imprisoned before being released.
Stephens's constant companion at the home was a large, fluffy white dog named Rio. Many of Stephens's books are housed in a smaller structure behind, where he spent much of his time after the war. The home was known for its many guests from all walks of life, who were invited for meals with Stephens. After Stephens's death in office in 1883, his
sitting room
In Western architecture, a living room, also called a lounge room (Australian English), lounge (British English), sitting room (British English), or drawing room, is a room for relaxing and socializing in a residential house or apartment. Su ...
was preserved as he left it,Gary L. Doster, ''Northeast Georgia in Vintage Postcards'' (Arcadia Publishing, 1998), p. 47 and the hall passed to his surviving relatives. The home served as a boardinghouse until 1932, when it was donated to the
State of Georgia
Georgia is a state in the Southeastern United States. It borders Tennessee and North Carolina to the north, South Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Florida to the south, and Alabama to the west. Of the 50 U.S. states, Georgia i ...
.
Today, the house is renovated to its 1875 appearance. The home was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on May 13, 1970, and was designated a
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...
on May 4, 1983.
Images
Image:Stephens Monument.JPG, Alexander Stephens Memorial
Image:18-10-009-stephens.jpg, Slave Quarters
Image:18-10-029-stephens.jpg, Library
Image:18-10-082-stephens.jpg, Dining Room
Image:18-10-163-stephens.jpg, Kitchen
See also
*
List of Georgia state parks
This is a list of state parks in Georgia. The park system of the US state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia was founded in 1931 with Indian Springs State Park and Vogel State Park. Indian Springs has been operated by the state as a public park s ...