“Still around the corner, there may wait a new road or secret gate.”
J. R. R. Tolkien
This is a wonderful small town, only 55 miles from Augusta and so worth exploring. This small town was established in 1774 and has an amazing history. Washington has more antebellum homes per person than any other city in the United States and was the first town in the US to be named after George Washington. There is so much history in this lovely tree lined town that once was known as Heard's Fort after Stephen Heard and was the Georgia state capital from February 3, 1780 to early 1781. The last Confederate Cabinet was held in town in 1865 by Jefferson Davis which is where the Confederacy voted to dissolve.
Our first stop was Callaway Plantation. What a beautiful brick southern plantation home. This home was owned by the Callaway family since 1785 and was a working plantation with over 3,000 acres at one time. Now the museum site has about 56 acres. The brick mansion was built around 1860 and each of the bricks was hand made from the Georgia red clay on the site. The house has two layers of bricks on all walls so it took years to build and the owner of the house never lived to see it finished. It was wonderful exploring the house, furnishings and grounds. I was fascinated by the windows facing the porch to the front of the house that had a small door underneath that could be opened so the windows could become doors. At one time when the house was not used, they put hay in it to keep it dry. It is hard to believe this beautiful home once had hay stored there. Now this plantation is across from a small airport with a road right in front. I imagine how peaceful it was there before there was any traffic.
The family's first home on this property was built by Job Callaway in 1783 and was only a small log cabin that has one room to sit in and cook and a loft upstairs to sleep. The inside was white washed and our tour guide explained that was done by using milk and sure enough you imagine what the smell was once like as the milk spoiled. Yuck. Also the walls has Georgia clay in between the boards and in the summer they would scrap it out to get a breeze going through the cabin and then as winter came on, they would re-grout it. It was fascinating for us as we looked at this cabin and knew how hard life was back in the day.
Next we went to the Grey house and was two story home that at one time had a porch on it before they moved it across the street from its current location. It is a plain home in Federal style and was a huge step up from the log cabin. The bible box in that home was beautiful and they also had a tall wooden piece of furniture that would have been outside for the workers to come buy and get a meal while sitting on their horse as to not dirty up the house. I also loved seeing how the mattresses looked and how they rested on the bed frames.
There is a one room school house that was very interesting. Inside, were the rules school teachers who were to work there had to follow. A few of the rules were, a teacher couldn't hang out at an ice cream parlor, couldn't be married, had to be home between 8 pm and 6 am, and rules on keeping the school room clean.
The General Store was very interesting and authentic looking. They have it set up as it would have been with time pieced items from the day. The front of the store is adorned with flowers in claw foot tubs on either side.
There were many other building there including a corn crib, slave quarters, separate kitchen for the main house, barn, and cemetery. We really enjoyed our tour and loved the property. We were told about Mule Day Southern Heritage Festival which is in October which has primitive craft and agricultural displays, artisans, and mule shows. Sounds like fun. We will have to come back for that sometime.
It wasn't as easy to find Kettle Creek Battlefield. I believe we wouldn't have found it without talking to a local who gave us directions without naming any roads, just landmarks. Like if you see the small church, you've gone too far. When we saw the sign to turn into the historic site, it was a dirt road and looked like we were going to be going onto someones property. We drove down that dirt road a good ways until we saw the stone wall and entrance gate. This is a 40 acre historic site that is the location of the Battle of Kettle Creek on February 14th, 1779, during the American Revolutionary War. There is a nice loop trail that has historic markers you can read as you walk around a nice walkway and sometimes a boardwalk. In the middle of this loop trail is “War Hill” which is hill that is 500 feet high and has a monument on the top and cemetery. Standing there and imagining what is was like on that day was very humbling. A total of 27 died here on that day and many wounded states the historic plaque on the site but other articles states there was many more who were killed on that day. Many prisoners were taken by both sides that day as well. This is a beautiful property and this was the first Revolutionary War sites either of us had ever seen in Georgia. It is hard to think that at that time the state of Georgia was almost completed under the British rule. We were glad we took the effort to find this site.
The town square in Washington has unique stores, wonderful antique store, and load of good places to eat. We visited the Jockey Club – Talk of the Town restaurant on the square and had fantastic food. I ordered the Caesar salad with fried chicken on top and Joe had the Bubba Muffaletta. He loved it. Both meal were very hardy and we really enjoyed it. The staff were wonderful and were very nice. http://talkofthetown2.com/
The Wilkes County courthouse was built in 1904 and has the most beautiful and unusual brick work on the upper section of the building that has been added since the fire of 1958 along with a clock tower. Before the fire the building had a flat roof. This is a wonderful building that makes the town square stand out. The Confederate Monument and three tiered fountain in the center of the square are very nice see.
Right around corner from the court house is the Old Jail aka the Old Wilkes County Jail and was built in 1891 by the McDonald Brothers and is now owned by a private citizen. It is a two story brick building with a wrought iron fence around it and a fountain that is not working anymore in the front of the building. The bottom floor of the jail dates back to the 1700's and there is a trap door and gallows below. I was told at the history center that the front of the building could probably be renovated but the back is in bad shape. It is a very interesting building and would be wonderful if it was renovated. I really liked this building as the architecture of the building is so different.
Near this jail is the Tupper-Barnett Home. This home was built by William Pope in 1832 is a grand Federal Style home. It was given to Henry Allen Tupper in 1853 by his wife's father and Tupper then added 18 fluted columns in 1860. In 1908 the Barnett family bought the home and it remained in their family for nearly a century. The house was very run down in recent years until a developer from California bought it and is renovating the whole house. He has already replaced the columns and is working on the front stairs now. What a treasure it will be when it is finished. On the back part of the property is where the servants quarters used to be. Now these small homes have been moved back to near the Old Jail.
When we were at Callaway Plantation we were offered a package deal of seeing the plantation and the Washington Historical Museum and we decided to buy the combo. Our last stop was to the museum and what a fascinating museum it is. We loved it. We saw well preserved arrow heads from the Creek and Cherokee Tribes, uniforms and dresses from years ago, muskets, historic documents, Confederate money, furniture, a suit of armor from the Tower of London, and even a gravy boat from George Washington. There was so much to see. What a wonderful gem of a museum. The guide was kind enough to find out information for us on the Old Jail and the Tupper house and servant quarters. The Museum itself is a historical building that was built in 1835 by Albert Gallatin Semmes and is another fine example of the architecture from the day. We loved Washington, Georgia and the people we met there. We will be back. Home again, home again, jiggety jig.
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