GARDEN CLUB / FOUNDER'S MEMORIAL GARDEN
The Garden Club of Georgia Museum, also known as the Headquarters House and the Founders' Memorial Garden, is located on South Lumpkin Street (Tax Parcel No. 17-1), adjacent to Old North Campus of the university.
Built on high ground overlooking Lumpkin Street, this two-story brick house possesses a one-over-one room, central hall plan enlarged by flanking one-story additions, one of clapboard and one of brick. The gabled one-story porch, ornamented with cast-iron columns, twin staircases, and a cast-iron balustrade, relieves the simplicity of the facade. The trabeated entrance features a doorway with sidelights and transom, representing the influence of Greek Revival style. A brick addition extends from the rear, and original outbuildings include a brick kitchen and smokehouse. The main house, kitchen, and smokehouse enclose a courtyard, developed as part of the two-and-a-half-acre Founder's Memorial Garden. The garden is actually a series of gardens, including a formal boxwood garden, a gravel terrace garden, a sunken formal garden enclosed with a serpentine wall, and several informal gardens displaying Georgia's piedmont plant materials. Completed as part of the garden development, a belgian block court accents the entrance to the main house.
The University of Georgia constructed this dwelling in 1857 as a home for professors, expecting them to live on campus, monitor student activity, and apply discipline as necessary. Through the years, the school has utilized the house as a dining hall, offices, and classrooms. When women were granted admittance to the University, Miss Mary Lyndon became the first Dean of Women and resided in the house. After her death, the house served as a chapter house for the first sorority established on campus, Phi Mu Fraternity. The residence later became the location of the Department of Landscape Architecture. In 1939 Dr. Hubert B. Owens suggested the development of the Founder's Memorial Garden as a cooperative project between the Garden Club of Georgia and the University to honor America's first garden club, founded in Athens in 1891. When the Department of Landscape Architecture moved out of the house in 1956, the Student Placement Office moved in. The Garden Club of Georgia obtained use of the kitchen building and restored it for a state headquarters office in 1959. The organization also acquired the main house in l96l, selected Mr. Edward Wade of Augusta as its restoration architect, and refurbished the residence with period pieces. Dedicated as the headquarters of the Garden Club of Georgia Museum in 1963, the museum headquarters were further embellished by adding to its supervision the Founder's Memorial Garden, developed between 1939 and 1946.
The Garden Club of Georgia Museum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (April 26, 1972).
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