|
|
Photo Gallery: Bailey Trebault House
I actually had a couple interior pictures of this building that were lost
due to battery issues. However, the outdoor pictures turned out nice.
From
www.gshistoricalsociety.org:
Welcome to the Bailey-Tebault House, one of Georgia's finest examples of a
Greek-Revival home. The hyphenated name, Bailey-Tebault reflects the
ownership of the property during the first hundred years of its history. The
home was originally occupied by Col. David J. Bailey in l859 just prior to
the outbreak of the War Between the States. Col. Bailey was an outstanding
leader of the state and built the home for his wife, the former Susan
Grantland of Milledgeville.
At
the time the house was begun, Col. Bailey was living in Jackson, Georgia,
where he practiced law and where he was elected first to the State
legislature as a Representative and later to the State Senate. Completion of
the house was naturally interrupted by the war. The special millwork from
Philadelphia was seized by the Union Blockade, but the home was
substantially completed less this feature and became home to the Bailey
family while Col. Bailey was forming the 30th Georgia Regiment of the
Confederate Army which he commanded until ill health forced his retirement
on Jan. l6, l863.
He
returned to Griffin and continued work on the completion of his home.
Although Griffin was on the edge of Sherman's destructive march to the sea
from Atlanta, in all probability this home would have been destroyed by
flanking raiders had not Mrs. Bailey opened her home as a hospital to the
sick and wounded of both armies. The home was spared except for Col.
Bailey's library which was scattered to the four winds by Sherman's raiders.
Later
in the City of Griffin's early history this splendid residence again served
as a hospital for a period of three years when the first Griffin Community
Hospital was established in the early part of this century.
Col. Bailey established the first Telephone Exchange in the City of Griffin
and it was from this home with Listing Number" l" that the first commercial
telephone call was made from this address.
David
Jackson and Susan Grantland Bailey occupied this house until their deaths in
l897 when title passed to their daughter, Mrs. C. H. Tebault of New Orleans.
Although Mrs. Tebault has been raised in this house she never lived here
after her marriage and hence no one named Tebault had actually lived here.
Ownership remained in members of the Bailey family until l97l when it was
sold to James W. Rawls who operated it as a funeral home until its sale to
the Griffin-Spalding Historical Society in l987.
At
the time of its purchase by the Historical Society the house was
structurally sound but badly in need of repair and redecoration to restore
it to its former grandeur. The exterior lines remain virtually unchanged
from the original construction and is frame with clapboarding with a central
two-story rectangular unit 59 feet with one-story wings projecting to sides
and rear, two-story tetra style portico on front, one-story Doric porches on
front side of both projecting wings. Restoration work continues and will
probably never be completely finished.
When
used as a home by the Bailey family there were a number of out-buildings,
including a stable, a privy, a one-room dependency, an apothecary, a
smokehouse, a two-bay carriage house with connecting barn. Only the
apothecary
and two dependencies have survived.
The two-room dependency was restored during the past year through the
efforts of Mary Bailey Izard in memory of her mother, the late Mary Sadler
Bailey. The other dependency is in the process of being restored by
Grantland Barnes and his daughter, Kathryn Hendrix, in memory of the late
Leila Grantland Barnes.
The
grounds are being restored under a master plan prepared by the eminent
landscape architect, Dan Franklin. A fenced garden, filled with annuals, has
been developed in memory of the late Mary King Smalley and is maintained by
members of the Griffin Garden Club. Recently five street lamps which
formerly served the City of Griffin prior to replacement in the l960's were
obtained and installed by the family of the late James Smith Murray, in his
memory.
The Bailey-Tebault home is the center of both cultural, social and
historical activities of Griffin and Spalding County. If not actually the
model for Margaret Mitchell's fictional Twelve Oaks which has been
suggested, it could easily have been.
The
Bailey-Tebault House occupies a unique position in this community. At the
time it was built it was the most elegant of residences and now, more than a
hundred years later, through the efforts of the Griffin-Spalding Historical
Society, it continues this distinction.
|
