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Available for the first time in almost 170 years, the Collier-Howard House, lovingly known as Pleasant Hill, captures the simplistic opulence of early agrarian life in rural Georgia. Originally built by Vines Collier, a Virginian that fought in the French and Indian War under General George Washington, the 3,014 SF home sits on 5 acres that were once part of a larger parcel received by George Lumpkin in a land grant (1786). Family tradition holds that Collier built the original section of the house, a Plantation Plain-style structure with federal period stylistic elements, sometime before his death in 1795. The house had a hall-parlor plan constructed with four rooms on the first floor and two upper rooms. The floors were connected by an enclosed stairway. The original rooms of the house still exist within the walls, the mantels, doors, and maintained wainscoting. Notable early features surviving in this section include board and batten doors and HL hinges attached with screws with their original leather washers. Sophisticated for its place and supposed time, Pleasant Hill is a very early example of the Plantation Plain style and one of very few confirmed eighteenth-century Georgia houses of its size.
Following the death of Vines Collier’s wife, his children sold the property to Peachy R. Gilmer, brother of then-Governor George Gilmer, who would own it a mere 11 years before selling it to William T. Howard in 1836. The home and property has remained in the Howard family ever since.
After welcoming his 13th child, Howard decided to expand the home just before 1850. James Norton, a carpenter from Maxeys, Georgia, associated with several other square columned homes in Oglethorpe County, was brought on as the primary builder. Pleasant Hill doubled in size with the addition of a central hall, three rooms, and a portico with a triangular pediment. With these additions, Norton turned the hall-and-parlor Plantation plain style house into a central-hall Greek Revival styled structure. Two chimneys were added in the renovation, the last of which has since been removed while the mantelpiece remains in the dining room near the rear of the house.
Since this major renovation, very little has been done to change the character of the home or alter the historical integrity. The back porch was added in 1910 and the indoor kitchen was added in 1935. Electricity was installed in the house in 1940 and a bathroom was walled off from one of the shed rooms in 1966. The old doctor’s office dependency behind the house remains, as well as one of the original wells.
The unique interior layout and remarkably preserved historical architectural features of Pleasant Hill give a rare peek into the evolution of early homes in America, making this property unmatched within the region and truly one-of-a-kind. Steeped in significant pre-Revolutionary and Antebellum history, Pleasant Hill eagerly anticipates thoughtful updates and continued preservation to ensure its legacy.
Only 24 miles to Downtown Athens and the University of Georgia!
MAKE YOUR HISTORY HERE!
$449,000!
