Kirby's Augusta - Ezekiel Harris House - An 18th Century Treasure
As quoted by the Smithonian Guide to Historic America, the Ezekiel Harris house is said to be ...the finest eighteenth-century house surviving in Georgia... Today, it is a landmark in Augusta, GA.
Ghosthunting -- Ezekiel Harris House Nighttime Investigation
We went back to the Ezekiel Harris House at night to do some snooping for ghosts with the handy ouija board.
Kirby Augusta - Hauntings of Augusta
Halloween is getting close.
And people are thinking about ghost stories.
I like them. You like them. Everyone likes ghost stories.
And while Augusta isn’t what I would call a ghost town, it has a few tales.
But most are as phony as a 50-cent séance.
Take the Ezekiel Harris House on Broad Street near the new Kroc Center.
For years, the story was told that during the American Revolution, a bitter British commander hung 13 patriots nearby. Naturally, there are those who report that strange lights are sometimes seen in the vicinity. Odd sounds are heard, too.
But the house Harris House wasn’t built until decades after the American Revolution. The Mackey House, where the patriots may or may not have been killed, was probably destroyed two centuries ago.
Then there’s the well-known “Haun¬ted Pillar.” At Broad and 5th streets.
This lonely column is said to be what’s left of an old market building destroyed by an 1878 tornado. The “haunted” part is a local legend – move the pillar or touch it, and you’re supposed to die.
That’s all made-up hokum, spun by a press agent, the city of Augusta hired in the 1930s to lure tourists.
The pillar we see today isn’t even the original. In
1935, The Chronicle reported, an automobile hit it and “reduced it to a pile of brick and cement.” The driver was not injured; the pillar was rebuilt.
On a Friday the 13th in 1958, the newspaper said, the column was toppled when an oversized bale of cotton fell from a passing truck. The driver was not injured.
Maybe the curse involves bad driving.
Walk down the street a few blocks into Olde Town, and you might see something spooky. On both July 11 and July 13, 1871, The Chronicle reported a ghost frightening residents. It turned out to be a mentally unbalanced girl wandering in her nightclothes.
In June 1903, The Chronicle reported that ghosts were seen at Meadow Garden, the former home of George Walton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Maybe it was George and political rival William Few renewing a political argument.
Augusta’s best ghost story is probably farther up Walton Way on the campus of the former Augusta State Uni¬versity.
This one, I can’t explain.
But The Chronicle and a Georgia ghost story anthology tell the story in the 1960s of a professor strolling across campus who saw a man dressed as a Confederate officer walking in the old Walker family cemetery. Then he vanished.
The professor said he didn’t believe in ghosts, but he could offer no other explanation.
We’ll have to take his word for it, and you can take my word for this: If you do see something spooky Halloween night, it won’t be me.
Basildon Park - 18th Century House, 1950s Home
Following years of neglect Basildon Park was in a terrible state when Lord and Lady Iliffe bought the property in 1952. Fire had damaged part of the roof and also the floor of what had been the library. The Iliffes set about restoring the house to its original eighteenth century style with Lady Iliffe personally engaged in hanging the red felt on the walls of the Octagon room, scrubbing clean the octagonal carpet that like much of the other furnishings had been bought at sales of the time. Lady Iliffe was a talented seamstress and was also responsible for making many of the drapes and curtains that decorated the house. Guests were entertained in the gracious dining room and bridge parties held to raise funds for charities. The house was handed over to the National Trust in 1975.
Augusta GA! A little History; River Walk and Brewery!
Augusta GA! A little History; River Walk and Brewery
Pizza Joint Augusta GA
Savannah River Brewing Company
Map Retrieved from Library of Congress web site,
• Creator: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Historic American Engineering Record. Survey number HAER {{{1}}}
• Source: U.S. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Built in America Collection.
• Copyright: The original measured drawings and most of the photographs and data pages in HABS/HAER/HALS were created for the U.S. Government and are considered to be in the public domain.
Description English: Sibley Mill ca. 1880 and Confederate Powder Works Chimney ca. 1862, located on the Augusta Canal at 1717 Goodrich St, Augusta, Georgia.
Date circa 1903 Black and white image
Detroit Publishing Co. [Public domain]
Annalisa.frazier or Judson McCranie - Own work: Image boyhood home of Woodrow Wilson
Image: Ezekiel Harris House, 1934 before it was purchased and restored. Photo by Branan Sanders for the Historic American Building Survey (HABS), courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
The old residence of George Walton, Augusta Ga, formerly known as Meadow Garden
• Type of Resource: From The New York Public Library, and provide a link back to the item on our Digital Collections site.
Frederick, Prince of Wales attr. to Joseph Highmore.jpg
• Created: circa 1740 date
Kneller - George II when Prince of Wales.png
• Created: 1716date
AugustaOfSaxe-GothaFamilyVanLoo.jpg
• Created: 1739date
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The Spooky House of Glenn Ave
Halloween in Augusta, GA with the kids.
In Memorium - Augusta's Haunted Pillar
A rememberance of Augusta, GA's Haunted Pillar that unfortunately met with some asshat's car...
Real ghost sighting in Augusta Georgia
Follow my Instagram alien documentary
Kirby's Augusta - Roy Harris: The King Maker
Roy Harris was a lawyer, lawmaker, house speaker, political magician and member of Georgia's Board of Regents. He is credited for getting several of his colleagues elected Governor of Georgia. He was also a major supporter of Georgia's school system
Kirby's Augusta - Roy Harris and The Three Governors
Seventy years ago this month, Georgia had one thing no other state in the union had...or probably will ever have...three different men who all seemed to have a legal claim to the Governor's Office.
Watch more!
Strom Thurmond -
First Governor from Augusta -
Wyck Hill House - The 18th century country house
is the home of Wyck Hill House, an elegant 18th century country house situated in a Cotswolds. Enjoy tailor made spa day 2-for-1 special offer-voucher in one hour of your choice.
Kirby's Augusta - Augusta's Earthquake - 1886
130 years ago on the last day of August, one of the most devastating earthquakes in American history rattled the eastern United States.
Watch more!
Who Let the Lions Out? -
What Caused the Great Fire? -
Kirby's Augusta - Roy Harris: The King Maker
Roy Harris was a lawyer, lawmaker, house speaker, political magician and member of Georgia's Board of Regents. He is credited for getting several of his colleagues elected Governor of Georgia. He was also a major supporter of the public school system.
Tour of Sesqui State Park's 18th Century Log House with Historian Al Hester
South Carolina State Park System Historic Sites Coordinator, Mr. Al Hester, takes us on a tour of the mid-18th century log house now located on the grounds of Sesquicentennial State Park. Mr. Hester points out important features of this historic log house outside and inside.
Kirby's Augusta - Augusta's Patriotic Mystery - William Few
In Bill's latest installment of Kirby's Augusta, we learn about a man who many only know by a well-traveled roadway in Augusta - William Few Parkway. But there is much more than this. He was a signer of the constitution, governor, senator and leader.
Kirby's Augusta - Where did George Washington Stay in Augusta
George Washington slept here. It's a phrase from the earliest days of Americana as communities across the young nation tried to claim some bit of presidential glory from its most famous first leader.
Augusta was no different. President George Washington actually spent three days here in 1791. We know because it was mentioned in his diaries. we know because it was reported in the Augusta Chronicle.
we know he slept here... but where?
Kirby's Augusta: Who Put the Garden in Our City's Nickname?
Augusta has been known as the Garden City for as long as we can remember.
Anyone visiting our town in the spring would find the reason obvious.
We proudly represent the state as the Garden City. It says so on all the signs.
But why?
THREE WORDS: Julia -- Lester -- Dillon.
Dillon was a rarity earlier in the past century -- a female landscape gardener.
She developed a reputation advising many Northern visitors who came down to enjoy Augusta's mild winters.
She was listed in the Augusta City Directory as a landscape architect—the first woman in the South to make her way in this male profession.
Those Northern visitors helped.
Having bought or built homes around town, they had little idea of plants that would succeed in the Southern climate.
That's where Julia came in, designing and planning many of their gardens.
One day almost a century ago, Sidney Ferguson, a local banker, dropped by to ask Mrs. Dillon what she thought would be a good nickname for Augusta.
As the story goes, he told Augusta's famous gardener, We're doing this promotion about Augusta and it should have a name.
Mrs. Dillon responded quickly, ``It's already named, for heaven's sake -- it's the Garden City of the South.'
Ferguson liked it. Took it back to the city naming committee, and everyone agreed.
Because when Julia Lester Dillon talked about gardening, people listened.
Born in 1871 in Warren County, Julia moved to Augusta with her family in the early 1880s after a tornado partially destroyed the family home.
They lived with her maternal grandparents on the 400 block of Ellis Street while Benjamin worked as a store cler.
Devout Methodists, the Lesters attended nearby St. James Methodist Church and lived out their faith in service to others.
Martha Lester became a strong advocate for education of mill children and adults and worked tirelessly to establish the King Mill School. In 1934, the Richmond County Board of Education named its new school in Harrisburg AFTER HER.
Julia's sister, Emma, became a missionary and would spend a quarter of a century serving in China, where she taught thousands including the future Chinese First Lady, Madam Chaign Kai Schek
Julia's brother Ben, would become Augusta postmaster.
And then there's Julia.
In 1920 Dillon received a commission to design and plant a 6-acre Sumter, S.C. She did so well, eceived she was hired permanently as the city's landscape architect and before the end of the year Augusta lost one of its foremost citizens.
Her remarkable career continued in South Carolina where for many years she wrote weekly articles for The State newspaper in Columbia, as well as articles for Flower Grower Magazine.
After a lifetime of service and a successful career devoted to helping people and making gardens to live in and love, she died in 1959 at the age of 80.
Julia Lester Dillon has been gone 55 years. But she left a legacy, she left an example and she left a city with a nickname .
Rarely does success bloom so beautifully.
Kirby's Augusta - Emma Lester: Touching History
Augusta has produced its share of remarkable people. And one the most remarkable was born in a house that once sat here at the corner of Ellis and Fourth streets.
Her name? Emma Service Lester.
Watch more!
Who Put the Garden In Our City's Nickname? -
Augusta Waitress Tops Lindbergh -
Like The Augusta Chronicle's Facebook Page!
Kirby's Augusta-Drinks All Around
DRINKS ALL AROUND
What was the drunkest city during America's Prohibition?
Our town.
That was the charge made in 1930, and no one seemed to challenge it.
During a speech in Athens, Walter Liggett, a prominent newspaperman of the day, told his audience that the federal alcohol ban was so commonly ignored in Georgia that the state should actually be considered ``wet.''
``In Augusta, I discovered that one out of every 22 persons is arrested within 12 months for being intoxicated,'' Mr. Liggett said, ``which gives the city the unenviable reputation for having a rate of drunkenness higher than that of any other city in the United States.''
The allegation points out a situation that divided Augusta through most of the 1920s and 1930s.
In 1920, six months after the 18th Amendment alcohol restrictions went into effect, The Chronicle dutifully reported that the federal action seemed to have little impact.
But as time passed, the reality began to creep into the news. Perhaps a lot more Augustans were enjoying their liquor than anyone had been led to believe.
In October 1922 The Chronicle reported that Prohibition had faltered and federal agents termed the city ``wide open.''
By June 1924, a law enforcement inventory of Augusta counted ``80 lewd houses, blind tigers, gambling dens and `dope joints.'''
After a decade, Prohibition became so ineffective that Councilman R.E. Allen suggested in 1932 that the city go ahead and license the 500 speakeasies in town, so it could make some money during the height of the Depression.
The city followed Mr. Allen's lead and began authorizing beer sales. The county, however, refused, confusing the police and almost everyone else.
Finally in December 1933, federal Prohibition was abolished.
But, this being Augusta, things were not quite so easy. Georgia law still made the state ``dry.''
When city leaders began to issue liquor licenses, alcohol opponents appealed to Gov. Gene Talmadge. He declined, calling it a ``local matter.''
Federal agents also stepped aside and Augusta's police remained perplexed over what to enforce.
The whole mess apparently attracted national attention. William H. Fleming, a lawyer representing the sober crowd, pointed to an account of the dispute in The New York Times, which he claimed tarnished our town's reputation.
Finally, on Christmas Eve 1933, Judge A.L. Franklin ordered the city to quit granting liquor licenses. Things quickly seemed to sort themselves out.
In January, The Chronicle reported, Augusta's speakeasies began paying federal taxes, although they were technically forbidden by the state to operate.
Several bootleggers were quoted as saying their business was unaffected by the controversy.
And in March 1934, Augusta welcomed several thousand visitors for the first of what came to be called the Masters Golf Tournament.
We can assume they had a good time
Brunswick Georgia
Hotel In Brunswick Georgia