Bills House - Bills-McNeal Historic District - Bolivar, TN
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 35° 15.210 W 088° 59.351
16S E 319033 N 3902969
Number 6 on this short NRHP list district. Note that the columns of the front veranda were accidentally installed upside down while the owner was out of town. When he returned and saw them he decided to leave them as is.
Waymark Code: WMY9XY
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 05/17/2018
Views: 0
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
"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