Abandoned House once the center of 5,000 acre plantation
Oakland - Wellborn Plantation, Warm Springs Georgia
Oakland was the home of Colonel Alfred Wellborn (1793-1857), one of the most prominent planters in the area who at his death owned over 5,000 acres centered around this plantation house as well as 242 slaves. He was a state senator for the county 1833-34. The house was purchased in 1873 by Franklin J. Williams (1830-1898) who was active in county politics and business.
Oakland appears at first glance to be a typical plantation house of the antebellum period. It has the usual features for a house of the 1830's-1840's; exterior chimneys, exterior weatherboarding with flush boards on the front, and the four over four room arrangement typical of a house of the period, especially one of a prominent plantation owner. Oakland is lacking a central hail, however, and has two doors exiting on the front portico as well as onto the balcony on the second floor. It also has two separate stairways that are located inside two rooms. It is not clear why this late in the antebellum period, with many examples of houses from which to model a design, that Colonel Wellborn, the owner, chose to build a house in this manner. It is well known that he was quite wealthy and prominent in the county and thus could have afforded a much finer structure. No early photographs have been located to determine the actual appearance of the exterior until the 1930s, when the present portico was added giving the house, in quick passing, the look of the Greek Revival style. These changes, which presumably include the interior beaded tongue and groove paneling, are said to have been done with the aid of workers from the Works Progress Administration in conjunction with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at nearby Warm Springs, Georgia.
Colonel Alfred Wellborn (1793-1857) was born in Wilkes County, Georgia and in 1821 married Elizabeth Terry Martin by whom he had six children. They lived first in Monroe County after it was opened for settlement in 1821 and when the Land Lottery of 1827 opened up the new lands between the Flint and Chattahoochee Rivers, Georgia's westernmost territory, they moved into this new land, to Meriwether County, in 1827. The land remained in his family's possession for some time after his death. The house and about half the original acreage was purchased in 1858 by his son-in-law, John Marshall Martin, who later moved to Florida and left the plantation to be run by overseers for the benefit of female members of the family who remained there. Franklin J. Williams (1830-1898) purchased the house and lands from Martin in 1873. He had married in 1854 Catherine Jones (1834-1904) and served in the Georgia House of Representatives from Meriwether County in 1878-79 and ran a nearby grist mill until it burned in February, 1880.
After being actively farmed by his descendants until the 1920s, the farm was broken up and sold to various people. The airport in front of the property was dedicated May 15th, 1932 by Franklin D. Roosevelt, then governor of New York and owner of land in nearby Warm Springs. In 1936 the county purchased the airport, the house, and 93 acres. Later the house was sold to private individuals.
Building Description
Oakland is a two-story wood-frame weatherboard structure. It has a pedimented portico across the front, supported by four square Doric columns. There is flush siding under the porch. It has a gable roof and a rock-pier foundation supporting hand-hewn beams and sills. The two front doors with transom lights are centrally located under a cantilevered balcony on the upper level. The front is fenestrated with four 9/9 windows, symmetrically located. There is an exterior chimney on the east and west sides of the house and two additional exterior chimneys on the rear of the house. A one-story colonnaded porch is on the southeast corner.
The interior plan of Oakland is four rooms over four rooms without a central hallway. The east rooms each contain enclosed, tight winder stairways which lead to similar-sized rooms above. Downstairs, all rooms have connecting doors, and on the second floor, there are also connecting doors except between the two rooms on the east side of the house. Ceilings are eleven feet high throughout the house. Floors are wide, heart of pine except in the southeast room downstairs where narrow pine floorboards have replaced the old floor.
Narrow beaded tongue and groove paneling was applied horizontally on all interior walls, ceilings, and stairwells throughout the house. Reproduction Cross and Bible style doors with mortised locks, painted metal door knobs, and escutcheons have been put into the house. The chimneys have been stuccoed and one was rebuilt.
The basic structure of the house is sound. Although there is some rotting of the hand-hewn beams, the house shows no unevenness due to the collapse of the substructure. Some of the beaded paneling and floors are deteriorating where windows have been out for many years and rain allowed to blow in. In a few places old floors have been patched. All the mantels have been removed and the side porch is collapsing. The columns on the front portico are sound although the very bottom parts have been cut off and replaced by brick bases resting on the concrete porch floor. The only outbuilding that remains is a nearby well shelter. The house is located next to a major highway and a small airport. The grounds are partially woods and partially cleared. The only evidence of landscaping is a few large oak trees.