Tag Archives: National Register of Historic Places

-South Carolina, National Register of Historic Places, Schools

Tamassee DAR School in Oconee County, South Carolina

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The Illinois Cottage was built in 1939.

In the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Oconee County, South Carolina, is the Tamassee DAR School. Like Rosenwald Schools, the school was founded to provide education to rural schoolchildren. Started in 1919, the school primarily provided an education to local white children. The school initially operated as a boarding school for girls and a day school for boys. Later, boys were allowed to board on the campus. In addition to getting an education, students learned about citizenship. It is one of two DAR-owned schools in the country, the other being the Kate Duncan Smith School in Grant, Alabama.

Sarah Corbin Robert School was built in 1942.

Additionally, Temassee was the site of the first “Opportunity School.” An initiative that began in 1921 focused on adult education and literacy for employees of local textile mills. The school focused on developing basic reading and math skills while also educating participants on health habits and civic responsibility.

South Carolina Cottage was built in 1919.

Buildings are named to recognize important women within the DAR or states where the statewide DAR chapters gave generously to support the founding and building of the school. The school was intentionally frugal by using wood from the local forests and leftover blue granite from the incomplete Stumptown Tunnel. Most buildings were constructed in the 1940s. The Tamassee Post Office was not an original building and was relocated to the campus.

Pennsylvania Health House was constructed in 1942.

Although the school no longer offers a primary education, it remains active by providing services to local children in need and daycare. Additionally, they host summer camps for local children.

The Pouch Cottage was built and expanded from 1939 to 1946.

The school was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

All State Building was built in 1930.
May Erwin Talmedge Auditorium was completed in 1952.
The Post Office was built in 1900 and was later relocated to campus.

The Dining Hall was completed in 1990.
-Georgia, Cemeteries, National Register of Historic Places, Symbolism

The Memorial to the Six Million in Atlanta’s Greenwood Cemetery

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Greenwood Cemetery is one of my favorite cemeteries in Atlanta. Its diversity in markers and burial sections illustrates the different people who call Atlanta home. Greenwood has an extensive Jewish section. There are many people buried here who escaped Nazi Germany. After World War II, many Jews immigrated to Atlanta.

In 1964, Jewish Holocaust survivors created the Eternal Life-Hemshech. Their focus was to create a memorial where people could mourn and recite Kaddish.

The organization turned to Benjamin Hirsch, a Holocaust survivor who lost family during the Holocaust and an alumnus of the Georgia Tech Architecture program. He chose locally quarried Stone Mountain granite to symbolize trauma and resilience. The memorial contains four entrances, representing the earth’s four corners, and all were welcome through the “doors.”

Six torches extend into the sky from the center of the memorial. Each torch represents one million people who lost their lives during the Holocaust. During the annual Yom HaShoah services, they are lit. At its center rise six towering torches, each representing one million Jewish lives extinguished by the Nazis. During the annual Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) services, these torches are lit. Under the torches in a vault, there are ashes interred of some of the people who lost their lives at Dachau.

The memorial opened on April 25, 1965. There are annual services held at the memorial.

In 2008, the memorial was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2024, the memorial was restored.

-Georgia, Houses, National Register of Historic Places

The Villa Marianna of Jekyll Island, Georgia

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Villa Marianna, designed by Danish architect and painter Mogens Tvede for Frank Miller Gould, grandson of railroad tycoon Jay Gould, was inspired by Spanish architecture and features courtyards, a formal garden, a fountain, and a tower. Built on Jekyll Island, where Gould spent his youth, the home later served as the headquarters for the Jekyll Island State Park Authority from 1950 to 1995. It is now an event venue.

-Georgia, Houses, National Register of Historic Places

The Spalding-Clark House of Ridgeville, Georgia

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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

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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

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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