Ezekiel Harris House

The Ezekiel Harris House, circa 1797, is a reminder of the days when tobacco was the primary cash crop in Georgia. Following the Revolutionary War, the area which now includes Wilkes, Elbert, Franklin, Lincoln, Warren, Oglethorpe and Greene counties was opened for settlement. Liberal land grants and rich soil attracted tobacco planters who had depleted their farmlands in Virginia and North Carolina by planting tobacco year after year. Towns sprang up around the tobacco inspection stations and warehouses. Tobacco merchant vied with tobacco merchant and town competed with town for the market. Competition was very fierce between Augusta and Harrisburg. Ezekiel Harris came to this area from Edgefield, South Carolina to build a town which he hoped would rival Augusta. In September, 1797, he announced in the Augusta Chronicle and Gazette of the State that his warehouse was "in order to receive tobacco" and he also offered accommodations for the planters in "a good frame house with a brck chimney [which] will be ready by the first of January 1798." The house, situated on a hill overlooking Augusta, is outstanding. The gambrel roof gives the house a feeling of New England and the vaulted hallway is unique in this area. Tiered piazzas are supported by chamfered wooden posts. The rear piazza is inset between small rooms which flank and open onto it. The 9-over-9 windows are framed by dark red shutters. The front doorway is almost directly from Plates 22 and 24 of Palladio Londinensis, Salmon's academic builder's handbook printed in London in 1734. The exterior rear staircase is the only access to the 2nd and 3rd floors. The exterior is painted the original gray color.