1736 Magazine - Fall 2018

PHOTO BY MIKE ADAMS
Downtown Dwellers
Brad and Mandy Pond; Age 45 & 42
children Drew, 14; Garrett, 12; Miles, 8; & Luke, 4
Neighborhood: Downtown North Augusta
Mandy Pond is not ordinarily impulsive.
But she knew the home at 715
Georgia Ave. in North Augusta was
going to be hers the moment she
stepped inside with her husband,
Brad.
“I looked at him and said, ‘I want this house,’ ”
she said. “I don’t usually do that very often.”
The couple passed by the turn-of-the-century
bungalow on the city’s main drag countless times
while growing up in North Augusta. But actually
living downtown was never a serious consideration
until the
116-year-old home went on the market in 2003.
“I always loved these houses through here,” said
Brad, a salesman for software company Intermedix.
“I thought, ‘Man, I will have arrived if I can ever
afford to live in one of those homes.’ ”
Though the home was priced $50,000 more than
their mid-century ranch in Hammond Hills, it fell
within the young couple’s price range. However,
some family and friends initially found its location
on the edge of downtown’s commercial district outside
their comfort zones.
“Honestly, my mom flipped out,” said Mandy, a
teacher at Hammond Hills Elementary.
The nearly half-acre property’s proximity to busy
Georgia Avenue means the couple’s four sons –
aged 13 to 3 - play mostly in the back yard. Nearly
half the home’s life was spent under ownership of
the nearby Grace United Methodist Church.
With photos from the church’s history book to
guide them, Brad and Mandy removed the front
porch sunroom and vinyl siding to restore the
home’s facade to its original appearance. With
the exception of some modern conveniences, the
three-bedroom two-bathroom home is pretty much
as it was when it was constructed.
Despite the occasional siren of an emergency
vehicle, things are fairly quiet at the home, which
faces North Augusta’s Calhoun Park, the site of
Brad’s proposal to Mandy.
“It probably feels a little busier here than it does
in small-town North Augusta,” Brad said.
Adds Mandy: “It’s like Mayberry, in a really urbany
setting.”
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