- Collection:
- Historic Architecture and Landscapes of Georgia: The Hubert Bond Owens and John Linley Image Collections at the Owens Library
- Title:
- South End House (Sapelo Island, Ga.)
- Creator:
- Linley, John
- Date of Original:
- 1985-09
- Subject:
- Menaboni, Athos, 1895-
Palladian
European
Tabby (cement)
Stucco
Plaster
Coating (material)
Cement
Houses
Dwellings
Architecture--Georgia--Sapelo Island
Architecture--Georgia--McIntosh County
King, Roswell, 1765-1844--Homes and haunts
Coffin, Howard Earle, 1873-1937--Homes and haunts
Reynolds, Richard J.--Homes and haunts - Location:
- United States, Georgia, McIntosh County, Sapelo Island, 31.39745, -81.27871
- Type:
- Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
- Description:
- Located at: Sapelo Island, Ga.
The current version of the house is a two-story stuccoed brick structure, originally tabby and stucco, featuring a parapet over a recessed colossal portico fronted by four Doric columns. The house was originally built around 1810, demolished around 1912, and replaced by a modified replica. Designed and built by Thomas Spalding of Sapelo, the house is constructed on the Palladian model of architecture with similarities to Jefferson's Monticello. The house was built by slave labor, with Roswell King as contractor, from 1807 to 1810. It served as the Spaulding plantation manor from 1810 until 1861. One of the most successful plantation owners on the Georgia tidewater, Spalding cultivated sugar cane and sea island cotton and had a labor force of some 400 slaves on Sapelo. During the Civil War, the house was vandalized by Union sailors from the offshore blockcading fleet. Unlivable after the war, it fell to ruins. A Macon hunting club partially restored the house in the early 1900s before Howard E. Coffin of Detroit purchased Sapelo Island in 1912. Coffin, chief engineer of the Hudson Motorcar Company and a leader in the early U.S. aviation industry, rebuilt the house from 1922-25 almost from the ground up on Spalding's original tabby foundations. The outdoor pool and Florentine statuary date from World War I. Coffin added an indoor pool, a basement grill room and lounge and a second floor reception room. The interior of the house was modeled on the Spanish-Mediterranean motif popular in the 1920s and similar to that of the famous Cloister resort on Sea Island, founded by Coffin in 1928. In 1934, Coffin sold Sapelo to tobacco heir Richard J. Reynolds of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Until his death in 1964, Reynolds modernized the house. Lively tropical murals by Atlanta artist Athos Menaboni were painted in the house during the Reynolds period, and the Circus Room motif was added in the upstairs reception room. For more information see Linley, John. The Georgia Catalog: Historic American Buildings Survey. Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, c1982, p. 87. Also see Nichols, Frederick Doveton. The Early Architecture of Georgia. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, c1957, pp. 39-40.
Slide annotated: "South End House, originally built by Thomas Spalding, restored/rebuilt by Howard Coffin and R.J. Reynolds, Sapeolo Island, Ga."
Date of structure: 1810. - Metadata URL:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_larc_jlc0537
- Digital Object URL:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_larc_jlc0537#item
- IIIF manifest:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_larc_jlc0537/presentation/manifest.json
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: [title of image], John Linley, Box 19
- Extent:
- 1 slide : color
- Holding Institution:
- Owens Library
- Rights:
-
