Homestead Place--Davidson Plantation

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Harris, Georgia, United States
Surnames/tags: Black Heritage Project Georgia

(Written by) William H. Davidson West Point, Georgia June 3, 1958,

Transcribed by Judith Davidson from “The Davidson Family” (1959) a family genealogy compiled by Martha Phyllis Davidson, Margaret Davidson Davis, William Hutchinson Davidson, and Janie Lovelace Heard.

"HOMESTEAD PLACE" THE JOHN DAVIDSON PLANTATION HOME HARRIS COUNTY, GEORGIA Built about 1840

OLD JOHN DAVIDSON HOUSE Near Chipley, Harris County, Georgia 3 or 4 Miles North of Whitesville

The house is in the Greek revival style and was built about 1845. It was built by John Davidson, who had settled in Harris County a few years previously. Inspiration for the house came from the famous Fontaine House in Columbus, Georgia (Bealwood), now burned. The Fontaine House was the home of John Fontaine, who came to Columbus in 1828, and was its first Mayor in 1836.

John Davidson hired a slave from Fontaine's to get measurements. He then went to his woods and selected trees. He made out his bill of lumber, had it sawed on his sawmill and kiln dried it. Every piece is heart pine, mortised, tenoned and pinned, and no nails were used. Shingles were split and dried on the place. The sills and girders are hewn and not sawed. The brick for the three outside end chimneys of a beautiful soft shade of red, were made of clay on the plantation.

The center two story porch has two solid wood columns with pseudo-Ionic caps supporting a pediment. The house has gable roofs, with outside brick end chimneys whose foundations are on stone. Under the two-story porch there is a free-hanging balcony with wood balustrade over a double doorway with a fanlight. A matching, slightly smaller double doorway with fanlight opens on the upstairs balcony. There is paneled wainscoting of excellent workmanship on the interior, paneled doors mostly of the well known six-panel type, and the risers of the stairway in the hall are decorated with an applied classic motif. There is a small stairway from the dining room to the second story.

The house is one room deep with a center hall, from which the stair­way rises. The dining room is in an ell, and there is a shed room on the back- porch. Originally the kitchen was in a building separate from the main house, but it has been torn down. An attractive and unusual feature of the house are the ornate cornices decorating it on all sides under the second story eaves.

John Davidson was born in Warren County, Georgia, January 19, 1792, and moved to Harris County in the 1830’s. He married Elizabeth Nichols of Warren County, who was born September 30, 1794. He died May 28,1862 and his wife died September 7, 1870. They are buried in the family graveyard near the house.

William J. Davidson, a grandson, who was living in Columbus, Georgia, in December 1936, furnished the building data about the house, built with slave labor.

This fine old house was included in a national survey of historical buildings made that year, and a description and picture of it is in the Library of Congress, under reference HABS No. GA-1144. Harold Bush-Brown, noted architect, was Georgia district officer of the HABS atthe time.

The house is of wood construction throughout, and the present condition of it is poor.

(Written by) William H. Davidson West Point, Georgia June 3, 1958,

Transcribed by Judith Davidson from “The Davidson Family” (1959) a family genealogy compiled by Martha Phyllis Davidson, Margaret Davidson Davis, William Hutchinson Davidson, and Janie Lovelace Heard.