The Seminary is a historic building at 6886 Main Street in
Lithonia, Georgia
Lithonia ( , AAVE: ) is a city in eastern DeKalb County, Georgia, DeKalb County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. The city's population was 2,662 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Lithonia is in the Atlanta metropolita ...
. Originally constructed as a school in 1895, over the years it has also served as a hotel and a private home. It is currently used as a multi-tenant office building. It was entered into 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 ...
(NRHP) on November 15, 1978.
History
The Seminary was constructed in 1895. Benjamin Franklin George had donated land for the creation of a school for Lithonia, in part to educate his own children. Lithonia had no public school system at the time; The Seminary was one of three schools which were privately owned and supported by tuition.
The building was constructed of
granite
Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
, using stone
quarried
A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...
locally. The town derived its name and much of its economy from granite at this time. The building is two stories with walls made of 19 to 24 inch granite and has a hip roof. The first floor has 12 foot ceilings and the second floor has 16 foot ceilings.
By 1906 a public school system had been established in Lithonia, so the school was closed and the building sold to John Keay Davidson Sr. He was a
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
immigrant who founded a quarrying company in Lithonia in 1901. Davidson brought in skilled
stonemasons
Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. Stonemasonry is the craft of shaping and arranging stones, often together with mortar and even the ancient lime mortar ...
from Scotland as workers, and converted the building into the Auto Rest Hotel to house them. It was at this time that the double
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 ...
at the front of the structure was added. The hotel continued in operation until 1917.
In 1917 the building was sold to J.H. Malone, who added interior plumbing and electricity to use the building as a private home. It was around this time a two-story bathroom addition was made at the rear center of the house. A second bathroom addition was made in 1962 at the rear north corner of the house. The house remained in the Malone family for many years.
In 2007 the house was sold to Ellen King Stewart, daughter in law of one of the original students of the Seminary, Dr. Thomas Weir Stewart. The building was restored and redeveloped by Mrs. Stewart as a multi-tenant office building called the Academy Professional Building.
See also
*
References
External links
Official website
{{National Register of Historic Places, state=collapsed
National Register of Historic Places in DeKalb County, Georgia
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state)