Bills House - "The Pillars" - Bolivar, TN - Photos Then and Now on Waymarking.com

County of house: Hardeman County
Location of house: SW corner, Bills St. & S. Washington St., Bolivar
Original Owner: John Lea
Current Owner: Rev. Cordell Smith
Built: 1831
Architect: John Lea
Old Photo: 1880's
New Photo: 2018

"6. Bills House, "The Pillars" (322 South Washington Street): ca. 1831, combination 2 story Federal style brick covered with hip on hip roof and 1% story Greek Revival cottage with gable roof and entrance with rectangular head and side lights, one story front porch with fluted Roman Doric columns on brick piers with lattice fills between piers. One story additions form ell behind two story section. Outbuildings include 2 story brick schoolhouse with gable roof, one room frame with weatherboards, servants house with eaves brackets and gable roof, and square, frame, smokehouse (semi-ruin) with wood siding, pyramid roof covered with wood shingles.

".....the Pillars is unique. Built by John Lea in 1831, it was purchased by John Houston Bills in 1837. He altered the house numerous times; it now reflects his varied talents and interests. An avid horticulturalist, Bills developed an extensive garden on the property. Alterations to the house and grounds were meticulously recorded in a diary which he kept from 1843-71.

"....On the grounds of The Pillars are a brick school building, which served for a time as the town's library; a servant's house, and the ruins of a distinctive pyramidal roofed smokehouse also survive. A similar smokehouse in considerable better condition stands behind the McNeal House; other outbuildings include brick slave quarters and kitchen, frame playhouse, octagonal wash house, and two polygonal, latticed gazebos. In the garden of The Columns are a small frame barn or carriage house and a diminutive playhouse. That so many early outbuildings survive at all is most unusual and that these are in such excellent condition is rare." ~ NRHP Nomination Form