Introduction: On a recent trip back to Athens, Georgia, we drove around places my husband and I knew from our time at UGA, and for me, my childhood, when my grandparents were living in town. We went by the house they lived in for 50 years or so, a cute Victorian cottage (built around 1908) with a big front porch that held the requisite front porch swing. So many memories of that house and the love that filled it. And there are the stories about the house that I’d often heard. My daughter suggested I should write them down and send them to the current owners. This post started as that letter, but I decided to post it here—and may yet send them a copy or link.

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Hi,

You don’t know me, and neither do I know you, but I do know your house. In the “For What It’s Worth” department, I thought you might be interested in a little history about that house. My grandparents, Robbie Lee and Emma Stone, bought the house probably around 1926 or so. My mom was a little girl at the time. They lived in that house till they moved out to the country (and close to where my grandfather’s family had roots) when I was in college—around 1973 or 1974. My grandfather owned the A&A Bakery on North Lumpkin Street, downtown just down from the UGA arches. He bought it from the previous owner during WWII—the owner was going off to war and said Papa was the only one he’d trust with the bakery, and sold it to him for $5. Papa ran the bakery till he had a stroke at age 81, and my aunt and uncle ran it for a few more years. I think it finally closed around 1993 or so? It’s now the “Roadhouse.”

Anyway, back to your house. I have so many fond memories of that house and going to see my grandparents. We were living first in Chattanooga, and then moved to Connecticut when I was 8. (Daddy was an economics professor so we moved for his jobs.) My sister and I were both really close with Mama and Papa and it was always a treat to come to Georgia to visit.

I don’t know how much of the house has changed. I’ve driven by a few times and the outside is still very much like I remember—right down to the porch swing. I can’t tell you how many hours I logged on the old porch swing over the years—sometimes I’d swing till I was sick to my stomach. I was bad about swinging higher than was probably safe, but never had an accident! They also used to have a couple of big, green Brumby-style rockers on the porch. One morning they had disappeared, likely as part of a fraternity prank. That was like losing a couple of members of the family!

Up in the corner of the porch rafters sat a curious little stone doll. I don’t know where it came from or what happened to it—I hope it left with my grandparents when they moved. I remember them telling us when we were kids that it weighed “100 pounds”—probably to discourage us from trying to figure out how to reach it and pull it down. I think that stone doll watched over the family and all that happened there.

The front door opened into the living room (more about that in a bit), with one bedroom off to the left. As I recall, that bedroom didn’t have a closet, so they blocked off an area with a sheet and put extra clothes behind that. The big cedar wardrobe that we have here now might have provided closet space in that room. It seems like there might have been a door or pass-through to the back bedroom that was usually covered up with “stuff,” and generally inaccessible. The dining room was straight back from the living room—I think there were French doors between the two? And the kitchen was straight back from that.

The kitchen was fairly long, as I recall, with a big stove to the right and the refrigerator to the left and the sink straight back. I’m guessing when my grandparents first moved in, it had a wood stove and an icebox. And I’m guessing that now you have far more up-to-date appliances than existed even 50 years ago.

A hall leads off to the left from the dining room past the bathroom. It used to have one of those lovely old-fashioned claw-foot bathtubs in it that as people updated bathrooms, they got rid of them for something easier to climb into—and now many are buying them to replace the more modern version just because they look so neat!

The hall continued down to another bedroom. Off to the back of that was the “sleeping porch”—where they’d sleep on hot summer nights. Before people knew what air conditioning was, they knew how to build houses to offer maximum cooling during hot summers—like that sleeping porch, and the big front porch. Not only was that front porch great for cooling off, it was also a way to connect with neighbors as they pass by. Does anybody still do that?

There was also a big room across the back that was used mostly for storage, as I recall. We didn’t go back there very often and it was kind of a treat when we were allowed to! We just knew there were treasures in there just waiting to be discovered. And it seems like there were stairs leading down to a door to the back yard. I don’t remember ever playing in the back yard of that house—we always played in the front. I really have no mental image of what the back yard even looked like, and I don’t remember ever questioning why we only played in front.

I’m guessing that basic structure still exists for you now, but it probably has been updated and perhaps added onto. The front of the house still looks like what I remember as a kid.

A few other stories for you….

The fireplace in the living room: My grandfather either built that or rebuilt it, and was doing so when my mom was going to LaGrange College (~1940s). One trip home, Mom’s roommates decided to play a trick on her and loaded her suitcase with 4 bricks from a LaGrange College building being demolished. Back then, suitcases—even when empty—were heavy and had no wheels. Some older gentleman helped my mom carry this now heavily weighted suitcase. Mom didn’t find out till she got home why it was so heavy. My grandfather made use of those 4 bricks and incorporated them into the fireplace he was working on. I don’t know which bricks they were or if they stand out in any way from the rest of the fireplace, but you have a one-of-a-kind fireplace to keep you warm.

That living room was the venue for so many big Christmas gatherings. My grandparents were happy to spoil us and our cousins, not just with toys and trinkets—but, perhaps more importantly, with unconditional love. And laughter—my grandfather could tell tales that had us in stitches, and he delighted in pulling silly tricks on us. When my grandmother would laugh, her whole body shook—and if it was a tale she was telling, it just shook all the more!

Outside, the back edge of the yard abuts an edge of the UGA President’s home. My grandmother used to tell of the time she got into a garbage tossing “war” with the wife of the President, tossing garbage back and forth over the wall to the other side…. I have no idea how that ever got resolved, but I can remember Mama’s laugh just re-telling the story. It does make you wonder—before city-wide trash pickup, what did people do with their trash? I’m sure there was a lot less of it, and folks reused whatever they could as long as they could. And not everybody had a convenient back wall to toss over whatever was left.

And there was a row of hedges on the right side of the front as you face the house. Not sure if they are still there, and if so, whether the hole is still visible or not. My dad decided to help cut the grass one day and somehow ended up plowing into the hedge. My grandfather just got tickled at my dad, even when he’d do things like this to “help out” and end up with some kind of eye-raising disaster. Daddy was brilliant, but sometimes absent-minded and/or mechanically declined. Papa just made it his project to look out for his son-in-law, I suppose as a way of protecting his daughter in the process!

So…. Your house, inside and out, is full of memories of all the families who have lived there. If only the walls could talk—or maybe it is just as well that they don’t. I hope you are adding some wonderful memories to the collection. Take good care of that house—it took care of some special people in its nearly 120 year history!

Every house where love abides
And friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home sweet home
for there the heart can rest.
           --Henry Van Dyke

© Melissa Clark Vickers 2023

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