Stately Oaks - Orr House, Jonesboro Georgia

Date added: November 25, 2023 Categories: Georgia House Greek Revival

The house is a simple but well-proportioned country house done in the Greek Revival style. From the provincial quality of the details, it appears to have been built, as well as designed, by a capable but untrained carpenter=builder about the year 1840. These carpenter-builders worked from books on architecture published in the early part of the 19^th century by trained architects in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. The mass of the house is pleasing and the plan is basically good, being typical of the majority of the rural Greek Revival houses throughout Georgia.

It has a symmetrical plan consisting of two rooms on each side of a central hall. The first and second-floor plans are basically identical. The house, when properly restored and furnished, will be architecturally pleasing in appearance and a very good example of this simple country style. (Edward V. Jones, Architect for Historical Jonesboro, Inc.)

Construction of the house is attributed to Whitmall P. Allen, who owned the plantation upon which the house was built in 1839-1840. In 1858, Allen sold the property to Robert McCord, who owned it until 1879. Clayton County Tax records show that McCord owned 404 acres at this place, and 8 slaves, at the time of the War Between the States in 1861. The house was an important landmark during the Atlanta Campaign of 1864, and the Battle of Jonesboro, August 31^st & September 1^st, 1864. Northern soldiers camped in the grounds during this time. A daughter of the house, Leonora Antoinette McCord, later recalled: "With the Battle of Atlanta only a few miles north of us and the Battle of Jonesboro a little below us, we could hear the booming of cannon in that battle, and having the enemy troops almost at our door, we felt that had been very near the theater of war, as indeed we had." (Ref. published memoir of Leonora Antoinette McCord Huie). The house was located on the Atlanta Public Road, four miles north of Jonesboro. It is shown in Union military maps drawn in 1864. Located in a park of large oak trees, the house became known as "Stately Oaks" and as "The Oaks". Robert McCord was a Confederate soldier. After the war, he resumed farming operations, and the house continued to be the center of this farm well into the 20^th Century and through later ownership. Remnants of the old garden surround the house. Historical Jonesboro, Inc., is pursuing plans whereby the house and kitchen may be preserved, restored, and opened to the public as an ante-bellum plantation residence museum, with flower and shrub gardens, kitchen garden, and reconstructed dependencies in which plantation crafts of the period may be demonstrated.

Because of acquisition by Historical Jonesboro, Inc., and the necessity for relocating it, the Orr House was moved in October 1972, in two sections, with brick chimneys intact, to its present wooded site across from the Jonesboro Recreation Center just off the Jodeco Road. It now sits on 39.2 acres.

Since it was moved, the house has been vandalized and its condition has deteriorated. Major damage has occurred to the chimney, which was maliciously knocked down. Although the windows are boarded up, many of the panes and mullions have been destroyed. On the interior, the stair banister and railing have been damaged and an upstairs room has suffered considerable water damage due to open windows and leaking roof.

Building Description

The exterior of the house remains essentially as built. 20th-century alterations were made in the interior, with additional partitions placed in several rooms and halls. It is a two-story frame house, built in the simple Greek Revival style, with double galleries on the front. The galleries are supported by four square pillars on each level. The building rests upon granite-slab foundations, and is topped with a hipped roof. It contains end chimneys covered with mortar. Each of the major rooms contains a fireplace.

The plan is a simple one used widely throughout Georgia during the ante-bellum period. It consists of a long central hall on each floor, with two rooms on each side of the halls. (The 2^nd-floor plan is essentially the same as that on the 1^st-floor). A two-story wing extends off the rear, containing one room on each floor. Beneath this wing is the cellar, in which the walls were built of field granite. The central hall is 10' in width and originally was 30' in length. A simple straight stair begins at the center of the hall and leads to the central hall on the 2^nd floor. The stair is 3' in width, with simple balusters and turned newel. The two major rooms, one on either side of the hall, measure 17½'X 17½'. Behind these are two smaller rooms measuring 11½' X 17½". Rooms in the rear wing measure 17½' X 17½'. Ceilings in the 1^st-floor are 10' in height, and are approximately 9' in the 2^nd-floor. The interior details are completely in keeping with the simple style of the building. Floors, walls, and ceilings are of heart pine boards, placed horizontally. In several rooms, these have been covered with plaster. Several rooms contain a chair rail. 1^st-floor windows have 6 panes in the lower sash with 9 panes in the upper sash. 2^nd-floor windows contain 6 panes in each sash. The front doorway is surrounded by rectangular window lights (side lights and headlights). The 2^nd-floor doorway has side lights only. The house contains 4-panel doors of simple construction. Presently, there are double French doors leading to each of the front rooms. These French doors are not original, but by the appearance of the molding, it would seem that these two rooms were originally entered through double doors. The fireplaces were built for logs, and mantles repeat the simplicity of design that prevails throughout the building. The fireplace facings and mantle shelves are square, and plain but of substantial design. Originally a stair led from the cellar into the large 1^st-floor room on the rear, but this stair has been removed. The cellar contains an outside entrance which was original.

Approximately 20' from the rear of the house is the original kitchen building, which was built of notched logs, with an open beam ceiling and a large, stone cooking fireplace that measures approximately six feet in width. The kitchen consists of one room, which measures 14' X 10'. During winter months, the logs were chinked with mud, which was removed in summer to allow ventilation.