Our first stop was at the Visitor's Center, where a very nice lady named Billie gave us more information than we could absorb! She was curious about our vagabond lifestyle, so we had a great chat with her over an hour or so, during which we learned a tremendous amount about Madison. She directed us to the Heritage House as the next stop on our city tour.
As we left the VC, we noticed an imposing structure just down the street. It's the Morgan County Court House. Wow!
The Heritage House was just a short walk down Main Street, so off we went. This Greek Revival home (its got a bunch of columns, and is essentially rectangular) is quite an imposing structure. Note that the columns on each end are square....the builder had an "attitude" and wanted to be different! The house was built in 1811 by Dr. William Johnston, and moved from it's original location 200 feet away in 1909 when a portion of the home's acreage was used to build a Methodist Church. The entire home was lifted, placed on logs, and pulled by horses and mules to its current site. A number of families have lived in the home over the years, but was donated to the Morgan County Historical Society in 1977. Antebellum architecture reflected the shift from the early yeoman farmer society to a slave-based plantation economy, dominated by a handful of planters whose grand home spoke of their status.
How do we know? Her hairstyle! She has two parts in her hair, indicating that she is promised in marriage!
One room contains a collection of spittoons. Since both men and women chewed tobacco back in the day, some spittoons are nicely decorated, indicating their use by the feminine gender. Hmmm.....it was a different time, wasn't it?
Sorry, I just have to share these with you...
The parlor is an elegant room, and has a very comfortable atmosphere. Of course, it is air conditioned today....
Tastefully decorated, and inviting, this bedroom really took us back to a simpler time.
In one bedroom we noted a pair of ladies shoes. They are not right or left as we would expect today, but rather made on a straight cobblers last. The ladies would alternate each shoe from one foot to another to even out the wear pattern!
Mens socks were made very tall because most men wore tall boots. Note the expanded area for the calf of the leg. A large calf on men was considered a signal of great masculinity, to the point that if the sock calf could not be "filled out", the wearer would stuff handkerchiefs into the area!
On the way back to the VC, we spied this birdhouse in the sideyard of an unidentified Antebellum Home.
And this is the home...
We got a bit confused trying to get back to the car, but after a few extra blocks of walking, we got it figured out!
We got to the Rogers House, built by Rueben Rogers in 1809. This is considered to be a fine example of Piedmont Plain style architecture as seen throughout the rural southern United States.
A few changes have been made over the years, a front and back porch, and a couple of more rooms in back, but it's still amazing that the home is still here! The ceiling of the veranda is painted blue because it was believed that birds would not build nests there, thinking that the ceiling was blue sky.
Inside this middle class home, the fireplaces are much simpler.
and the window treatments are more practical.
A section of an interior wall has been left unrestored so we can see the original wallpaper pasted over wall boards.
An upstairs bedroom has a period bed with rope supports for the mattress. The rope tension could be adjusted, and it's said that when a guest had overstayed their welcome, the ropes were loosened to make their bed uncomfortable! We've learned at other locations that this type of bed led to the phrase "sleep tight...".
A few blocks away from downtown, the historical district gave us a view of several priceless old homes.
We left Madison, named for James Madison, thinking that it is a comfortable little town that we may visit again. We've enjoyed our visit to the Antebellum Trail, but we're ready to move on.
One of Georgia's famous storm clouds greeted us as we returned to the motorhome.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, the 19th, we'll prepare for the next leg of our 2018 journey. We will "make the turn" and start west. We expect the journey home to take most of a month, but we have a medical goal in mind, and need to resolve that. We've enjoyed our trip to West Virginia and Georgia, and may return if they can find the temperature control for the weather!
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