The following information is available on the
Orange Hall website:
Sitting gracefully on Osborne Street is found the architectural pearl of historic St. Marys, Georgia. The home takes its name Orange Hall from the "extensive hedges and the large sour orange grove at the rear of the house." This is a showcase of antebellum life in the Greek Revival style, with massive fluted columns below classic, yet simple, Doric capitals and triangular pediment. Its spacious rooms and wide hallways, and its garden’s tree hedges all contribute to a simple frontier elegance. The architecture is, too, labeled a Doric prostyle temple. Its main floor is above the ground-level floor, the latter used primarily for food preparation, servant areas, and storage.
The property was originally granted to William Ashley, one of the founders of St. Marys. It later was owned by Phineas Miller, then Ethan Clarke by 1803. By 1826, Clarke sold this end of the block to John Wood and his son-in-law Horace Pratt, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of St. Marys. It is believed that construction began somewhere between 1826 and 1829, and perhaps lasted into the 1830's.
Conflicting stories tell of John Wood building the house for his daughter Jane Wood Pratt, while another tradition has Pratt building it for his second wife, Isabel Drysdale Pratt. Research by the Department of the Interior in the 1970's, speculated that construction on an earlier home may have taken place about 1830. It probably wasn’t until between 1846 and 1853 that the larger and more expensive structure "was skillfully incorporated into the present structure..."
In 1846, the property was sold to James Mongin Smith which, if true, would make Smith the owner when the present large structure was completed. In 1856, the home sold to Francis M. Adams, Mayor of St. Marys and the principal of a local academy.
With the American Civil War and the 1862 invasion of the area by Union troops, the house became headquarters of a squad of occupying troops and remained relatively unharmed. In 1866, it was sold to Elizabeth Ryals, the wife of a local attorney. She found a buyer by the end of the decade and it went to a New Yorker and became his winter home.
The grand old estate passed on through various stewards, each lending it their own degree of attention. The Beckers of New York bought in 1919 and upgraded the house to a state that made it the social center of St. Marys. The Fryhofers of Palm Beach bought it in 1925, but never lived in the house before selling in 1933. It was then converted to apartments to help house the many new residents arriving to work at the new Kraft paper plant. Orange Hall operated as an apartment until the about 1960 when its owner, St. Marys Kraft, deeded it to the City of St. Marys for use as a library and civic center. Today, the City of St. Marys perpetuates the grand old lady as a welcome center and living museum of the cities past.
Orange Hall has a basic four room, central hall plan with smaller rooms near the rear porch. Each of the eight major rooms is approximately 18 by 20 feet with 11-foot ceilings. There are two primary chimney flues, each being fed by six fireplaces, two on each floor, including the ground level.
At the left, and below, is the front parlor where music can be heard from organ or piano.
All doors and windows are pilaster framed with entablature above. Cornice moldings surround the ceilings and ten-inch baseboards are at floor level.
The charm of Southern tradition began at the grand entrance hall and its mahogany staircase that winds to second level in befitting grace. Treads, risers, and balustrade are crafted of the finest mahogany available.
At the top of the steps are found the children’s rooms, spacious and open on one side of the fireplace allowing free access to an older sister’s room. Molding and trim is much more basic in the children’s area.
On the ground level is the kitchen, dining hall, servants’ rooms, and storage areas. The hearth shown here is in the old servants’ room, adjacent to the old kitchen and a similar large fireplace for food preparation. The hearth opening measures six feet in width and three feet, seven inches high.