Category Archives: National Register of Historic Places

-Georgia, Houses, National Register of Historic Places

The Spalding-Clark House of Ridgeville, Georgia

April 27, 2025 Cynthia L Jennings Leave a comment

The Spalding-Clark House is on Highway 99 in the Ridgeville Community of McIntosh County, Georgia. It went on sale in April 2025, and while on the Spring Ramble for The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, it was open for a tour.

The listing can be seen on The Old House Life. According to the listing, it was owned by Randolph Spalding, a planter and politician from McIntosh County, and Dr. Peter. S. Clark, a local doctor and horticulturist.

Randolph Spalding was born on December 22, 1825, in Darien, Georgia, to the planter Thomas Spalding and his wife, Sarah Leake Spalding. Using enslaved labor, Thomas Spalding was the largest producer of Sea Island cotton.

Because of his family’s wealth, by the age of 25, Randolph Spalding enslaved 87 people. By 1860, he held over 300 people in bondage. The house would have been built with enslaved labor.

Dr. Peter S. Stratton (1857-1919) was a local physician and noted horticulturist. The yard still contains many of the plants and flowers he grew.

The house was expanded several times in the early years. It appears it started as a plantation plain, and the Folk Victorian details were added during one of the expansions. There are other historic buildings on the property. The house is a contributing property to The Ridge Historic District.

-Georgia, Churches and Temples, National Register of Historic Places

Faith Chapel of Jekyll Island, Georgia

April 26, 2025 Cynthia L Jennings Leave a comment

Faith Chapel was constructed in 1904 for the exclusive Jekyll Island Club members. The Shingle Style church was built for interdenominational use, replacing Union Chapel, which was moved to the area where the Black employees lived at the Jekyll Island Club. The Jeykll Island Club was later purchased by the State of Georgia and opened to the public.

The chapel is known for its stained glass windows. The Stickney Memorial Window was created by noted stained glass designers, Maitland Armstrong and Helen Armstrong, and dedicated in 1905. It was installed in the memory of Joseph Stickney, a founding member of the Jekyll Island Club.

The second window, known as the Bourne Memorial Window, was crafted by renowned stained glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany. Tiffany visited Jekyll Island multiple times, and the Jekyll Island Club members commissioned him to create this window in memory of Frederick Bourne, the Club’s former president who passed away in 1919. It depicts, “David Set Singers Before the Lord.” The window was installed in 1921 and underwent complete restoration in 2021.

Animal grotesques accompany the beauty of the stained glass windows. There are six inside the chapel. On the outside of the building, rain spouts are gargoyles inspired by the ones at Notre Dame Cathedral.

-Georgia, Hotels and Motels, Houses, National Register of Historic Places

Cherokee Cottage of Jekyll Island, Georgia

April 26, 2025 Cynthia L Jennings 2 Comments

Built in 1904 for Dr. George Frederick Shrady (the former physician for General Ulysses S. Grant) and his wife Hester, this 20-room Italian Renaissance-style cottage was later purchased in 1925 by Walter B. James, the President of the Jekyll Island Club, who named it “Cherokee.” The house is also known as the Shrady-James House. Renovated in 2001, it now serves as a hotel.

Image courtesy of the Digital Library of Georgia

-Georgia, Black History, Churches and Temples, National Register of Historic Places

St. Athanasius’ Episcopal Church of Brunswick, Georgia

April 25, 2025 Cynthia L Jennings Leave a comment

St. Athanasius’ Episcopal Church of Brunswick, Georgia, began in 1883 when two women from St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Brunswick, Mary King Troupe and Louise Nightingale, started a Sunday School for the Black community. By 1885, the mission had grown, and St. Athanasius’ Episcopal Church was officially organized, named after Athanasius of Alexandria, a prominent African saint.

The current church building replaced the original wooden church, which was destroyed by a storm in 1896. The Gothic-Revival influenced church is made of tabby and is one of the few remaining tabby structures from the 19th century still standing in Brunswick. In 1946, the tabby was covered in stucco.

A major renovation in 2000 included the installation of stained glass memorial panels, featuring three panels that honor Civil Rights Movement leaders.

-Georgia, National Register of Historic Places, Signs

Lula’s Kitchen of Sapelo Island

April 24, 2025 Cynthia L Jennings Leave a comment

Sapelo Island is one of my favorite places in Georgia. It’s mostly untouched, with fewer than 100 people living there. With so few people on the island, there aren’t restaurants, but there is Lula’s Kitchen.

Located in Hog Hammock, Lula Walker is the chef behind Lula’s Kitchen. She grew up on Sapelo Island as Lula Ward and later married George Walker. She now provides meals to visitors on the island. Meals are made by request before you arrive on the island.

On the recent Spring Ramble for the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, attendees were treated to a day trip to Sapelo Island, and were fortunate enough to enjoy Mrs. Walker’s food. Fried chicken, collards, mac-n-cheese, squash casserole, and homemade pies were part of the menu. After lunch was done, Mrs. Walker shared stories about her life on the island. She’s cooked for President Jimmy Carter and other dignitaries.

If you ever get the chance to visit Sapelo, I highly recommend ordering ahead for meals cooked by Lula herself. Your host for the island will be able to connect you with Lula or one of her staff members.

-Georgia, Houses, National Register of Historic Places

The Reynolds Mansion and the Paintings of Athos Menaboni

April 24, 2025 Cynthia L Jennings Leave a comment

Reynolds Mansion is located on the southern part of Sapelo Island. Its origins trace back to the early 1800s, when Thomas Spalding, a prominent planter and politician, established a plantation on Sapelo Island. Using enslaved labor, Spalding introduced sugarcane cultivation to Georgia. The mansion was designed by Roswell King and constructed using tabby, a mixture of lime, sand, and oyster shells, a common building material in the Southern coastal States.

In 1912, Howard E. Coffin, an automobile magnate, acquired the island and undertook significant renovations of the Spalding estate, which had fallen into disrepair after the Civil War. The mansion was essentially completely rebuilt. Architect Albert Kahn designed the reconstruction.

The estate changed hands again in 1934 when tobacco heir Richard J. Reynolds Jr. purchased it. Reynolds further expanded the mansion and used it as a private residence and a venue for entertaining guests, including notable figures such as Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.

Prominent Atlanta architect Phillip Trammell Shutze was responsible for the home’s redesign and expansion. Shutze engaged noted painter Athos Menaboni to paint murals throughout the home. Menaboni was an Italian American artist who came to the United States after World War I. The artist was known for his bird paintings, but his work also expanded into other areas. He designed the murals of the Reynolds Mansion’s ground-floor game room, sunroom, and top-floor banquet hall, known as the Circus Room. Photos are below.