Fall Ramble allows visitors and residents alike to view historic homes

Published 3:15 pm Monday, October 14, 2024

The Fall Ramble was held from October 11-13. Several historic homes were open to the public. Mayor Lee Kinnamon’s home, The Hale House, was open on West Church Street on Saturday. Paino music played by Alwen Yeung greeted visitors, along with music from an Edison Player.

Kinnamon told the story of the craftsmen style house. “This was my grandmother’s house, Laura Ansley-Hale. She married professor Charles Hale in 1914, and this house was built for her as a wedding gift.”

He noted his family’s connection to several historic homes. “The house next door was a family house, it was constructed in 1887, and on the next corner was the first brick house built in Americus Georgia, in 1868, and that was the Speer House, and that was my great-great grandfather. So my children are the sixth generation to grow up on Church Street, in this stretch of Church street, and the fourth in this house.”

Kinnamon told the story of the furnishings. “The furnishing came into . . .this house from the different other family houses. The ancestral seat for the Speer family was out the Lee Street Road near the Lee County Line, not in Lee County, in Sumter County. It was a plantation, originally about 3,000 acres and the house still stands out there, it’s called Liberty Hall.”

Kinnamon told how Speer had come to build his home. “Major Spear came into town, he built the first brick house after the Civil War, invested in banking, the railroad.” Kinnamon noted a chief project. “The Windsor was his big scheme.”

The Guerry-Mitchell House on McGarrah was built in 1833, and is the oldest house in Americus resting on its original site. Miniature cannons decorated the mantle piece in one room, with a sword above the fireplace, and a collection of arrow heads on the coffee table. The room was also adorned with various pieces of Civil War related memorabilia and a wooden book shelf.

A painting of Annie Rose Wyly Gilfoil was featured in the parlor, the mother of the current owner, Anne Stapleton, who told about the house. Stapleton told how it was built in the low country style by a French Huguenot from South Carolina, John Peter Guerry.

She told how eventually the house passed to another family. “Then the Mitchell’s bought it from the Guerry’s, and they taught music here, and then after that the house went into a period of decline, and it was sinking when Walter bought it.”

Walter Stapleton, Anne Stapleton’s husband, worked to repair it along with a friend. “Walter got the house, but he had never restored anything.” She told how he studied for about a year, and worked with an artisan friend of his, Joe Daniels, to restore it. “If you notice the really beautiful brick work, it was Walter and Joe Daniels who restored this house. Nobody else touched it.”

Anne Stapleton told how the furniture was all ante-bellum, handed down from their families. She also talked about how the site of the home was unique. “It has fourteen spring heads.” She told how it had been occupied for a long time. “The Creek Indians were here. It was a Creek Indian campsite.”

Anne Stapleton talked about the catfish and brim occupying the springs. “The catfish are fantastic.” She described the taste of the meat. “Walter always said it was like sugar.”