Carr's Hill Historic Neighborhood with Maxine Easom

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Intricate gingerbread scrollwork graces the gable of this vernacular cottage in Carr’s Hill. NOTE: tours are listed in alphabetical order below. Carr's Hill Historic Neighborhood with Maxine Easom Saturday, August 28 at 10 am Saturday, September 11 at 10 am This scenic prominence of land that begins at the eastern bank of the North Oconee River just below downtown is home to Clarke County’s earliest and most significant history. It is here where wealthy landowner William Carr and his young bride built a home in 1817 and where the first railroad reached Athens in 1841 on land provided by Carr. Carr's Hill remained the Athens' railroad terminus for the next forty years, before the construction of a bridge across the river. The well-known painting by George Cooke, “A View from Carr's Hill,” was painted for his good friends' daughter, commemorating the scene which would be her last view of home as she boarded the train to leave for Alabama with her new husband. Life on Carr's Hill was closely tied to the river and the industries which were built there. Textile mills located along the river such as the Athens Factory and Climax Hosiery Mill provided jobs to many of the Hill's residents whose modest cottages are still in use. Once a humble but thriving neighborhood anchored by the Oconee Street United Methodist Church (1903) and the Oconee Street Elementary School (1908), today's Carr's Hill is a cautionary tale. The neighborhood clearly shows negative effects of misguided zoning and lack of vision, but the story's ending has yet to be written and concerned residents are working for a better future. This tour will last approximately 1½ to 2 hours. Your Tour Guide: Maxine Easom is the fourth generation of her family to have grown up on Carr's Hill. She credits that community's humble residents with helping to instill the values that she has carried with her throughout life. A well-respected teacher and administrator, she received her bachelor's degree in music education and went on to earn her doctorate in education from the University of Georgia. She began her career teaching piano, then became an elementary school teacher and eventually a principal at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. She retired recently as principal of Clarke Central High School but continues to be active, serving on the board of the Athens Area Urban Ministry which oversees Our Daily Bread Noon Kitchen. She is a lifelong member of Oconee Street United Methodist Church, where she has served as the music director for over 40 years. Cobbham Historic District with Milton Leathers Thursday, August 26 at 7 pm Sunday, September 26 at 2 pm John Addison Cobb laid out 80 lots on his land in 1834 for a speculative development characterized as a “town in the woods.” In the antebellum period, wealthy Athenians built suburban villas on its expansive lots, but, by the time of the Civil War, lots became smaller, prompting many cottage-type homes. In addition to houses, several important institutional buildings were erected in the neighborhood, most especially academies to serve the children of Athens’s gentry, many of whom lived in Cobbham. The earliest was the Lucy Cobb Institute, a female academy founded in 1858. Another was the Athens Academy on Meigs Street, founded in 1886. After World War II, Cobbham underwent a transition, with many houses being purchased by speculators who subdivided the large homes into student apartments. A turn-of-the-century Folk Victorian cottage with stylistic influences from both Queen Anne and Neoclassical architecture. Institutional intrusions on both ends of Cobbham caused the demolition of several homes and threatened others. History professor and preservation activist Phinizy Spalding was instrumental in a grassroots effort to protect Cobbham, ultimately achieved through its designation as a local historic district. Today Cobbham enjoys its place as one of the premier historic neighborhoods in Athens, and it contains some of the finest examples of Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, and Second Empire architecture in the Classic City. This tour will last approximately 2½ hours.
Your tour guide: Milton Leathers’ ties in Cobbham run deep. He is descended from Virginian John Cobb, who first purchased land in the Athens area in 1792. His father grew up in Cobbham, and Leathers lived in the Hill Street home built by his great-great-grandparents, Confederate General Howell and Mary Ann Lamar Cobb. Leathers is a consummate story-teller, and he traces his interest in Athens history to many years spent listening to the stories of his grandmother, Camilla McWhorter (Mrs. Andrew Cobb) Erwin. A graduate of Western Carolina University, Leathers’ varied career includes service as a Russian translator in the U. S. Army, as a teacher on Oahu, as president of L. M. Leathers & Sons and Erwin & Co., Inc. and, upon retirement, as an English teacher in China. He is former chairman of the Historic Cobbham Foundation, past president of the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation, and a current board member of the Athens Historical Society. The 1859 Meeker-Pope-Barrow House features one of only two antebellum gardens still remaining in Athens. Dearing Street Historic District with Hubert McAlexander Saturday, September 25 at 10 am Saturday, October 23 at 10 am Dearing Street is the quintessential old Southern neighborhood of gracious homes and gardens. The land was originally part of the 633-acre tract that John Milledge purchased and donated for the University of Georgia, portions of which were sold over the years to raise money for the college. Dearing Street was laid out in the 1830s into four-acre squares and sold over a 50-year period. Most of the homes were built between the 1820s and 1910 in a wide range of architectural styles including Folk Victorian, Colonial Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, Neoclassical and vernacular cottages. The street was named for William Dearing, a wealthy plantation owner who was among the elite that came to Athens to educate their sons at the University and build great mansions. A list of the street's former residents—among them the Deuprees, Barrows, Erwins, Cobbs, Rutherford, Childs and Harrises—reads like a who's who of Athens. Subsequent owners subdivided their lots and later-period structures filled out the street. One of the early residents was Malthus A. Ward, a physician and botanist who was the university's first professor of natural history. He created an 8-acre botanical garden for the university—the first in the South—which extended from his home eastward to Tanyard Branch. The Dearing Street Local Historic District is home to two charming local favorites, Finley Street, which is the last remaining street to feature Belgian Block paving, and The Tree That Owns Itself. Dearing Street was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. This tour will last approximately 2 hours. Your tour guide: Hubert H. McAlexander, Josiah Meigs Professor of English, Emeritus, is a native of Mississippi but a resident of Athens since 1974. Trained in American literature at the University of Mississippi and the University of Wisconsin, and the author of nine books, McAlexander has been a longtime supporter of preservation in Athens and long interested in the history of his adopted town and historic street. Dearing Street, located on the next hill west of the University, has always been home to leaders of town and gown. He was the impetus behind and researched material for Historic Dearing Street by Frances Taliaferro Thomas, the only book to be dedicated to a single street in Athens. “FootPrince” – Historic Prince Avenue with Amy Andrews Thursday, August 19 at 7 pm Ask a current or former Athenian to name their favorite places in Athens, and Prince Avenue is guaranteed to be on the list. The stately Greek Revival and Victorian homes, flowering dogwoods, deep-set lawns, mature trees, streetfront commercial buildings, and neighborhood character of this busy historic corridor combine to lend a distinctive presence that few streets can emulate. Originally the Federal Road to the Indian Territory, Prince Avenue's earliest existing homes date to the 1840s. Some of Athens' and the state of Georgia's most influential citizens lived here—among them Joseph Lumpkin, Henry Grady and Monroe “Pink” Morton. Home to architecturally-significant institutions like the State Normal School (1862), Emmanuel Episcopal Church Charles Newton built this handsome Queen Anne home in 1897. His four college-educated daughters never married and lived here together their entire lives.
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Carr's Hill Historic Neighborhood with Maxine Easom

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