- Collection:
- Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation Presentation Slide Collection, 1968-2000
- Title:
- Ezekiel Harris House
- Creator:
- Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation
- Date of Original:
- 1973
- Subject:
- Architecture
Historic sites--Georgia--Richmond County
Historic buildings--Georgia--Richmond County
Architecture, Domestic--Georgia--Richmond County
Cultural property--Protection
Historic preservation--Georgia
Historic buildings--Conservation and restoration - Location:
- United States, Georgia, Richmond County, Augusta, 33.47097, -81.97484
- Medium:
- color slides
historic preservation
historic buildings - Type:
- Still Image
- Format:
- image/jp2
- Description:
- Mackay House, an historic house opened to the public in 1964, contains Pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary Period exhibits and furnishings. When the Georgia Historical Commission acquired the three-story frame structure in 1956, it was valued because it survived a bloody Revolutionary War battle. 19th and 20th century additions, careless tenants and three fires had not obscured its mid-eighteenth century character. Thomas G. Little, an Atlanta architect formerly with Colonial Williamsburg's architectural staff, directed the restoration until his death in 1962; Ernest M. Frank, Williamsburg's Director of Architecture succeeded him. Physical evidence combined with thorough documentary research suggests a building date of about 1760. Not only the earliest and best surviving example of American Georgian architecture in the former thirteenth colony, the following features distinguish it from all other colonial period houses in Georgia: (1) The two-tiered, two-story piazza constituting the front facade is a coastal Carolina type, resembling a group of houses near Edenton, North Carolina. Such porches are modifications of a West Indian style. (2) The gambrel roof, rare in Georgia, and the general appearance indicates New England influences especially Newport, Rhode Island.(3)The interior woodwork and the front entrance show unusual dependence on the more academic builder's handbooks, namely Swan's British Architect (London, 1745) and Salmon's Palladio Londonsis (London, 1734). (4)The rear galleried piazza shelters a staircase which is the only access to the second and third stories. Extensive research has recently been completed which has shed new light on the history and architecture of the "Mackay House," Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia. According to the historical research, the house was built circa 1797 by tobacco merchant Ezekiel Harris. It stands on what had been the "White House Tract" which was the site of the Revolutionary battle, the First Siege of Augusta. The "Mackay House" or "White House," where the battle and the subsequent hangings actually took place, is no longer standing. The present structure was the first house built in the village of Harrisburg (near Augusta) and was the residence of the founder of Harrisburg, Ezekiel Harris, from 1797 until 1800. It was then owned by the Pearson-Walker family from 1809 until 1873. The Director of Architectural Research for Colonial Williamsburg, Mr. Paul Buchanan, completed an on-site study of the house and prepared a written report for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. He concluded that the house was built in 1800 plus or minus five years. He found the house to be extremely valuable architecturally and recommended that the house be preserved on its architectural merits. Variant names include: Ezekiel Harris House, White House, Mackey House
Mackay House, Harris-Pearson-Walker House, MacKay's Trading House. See ref# 69000052 (Harris-Pearson-Walker House) https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/upload/national-register-listed-20240710.xlsx - External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/gthp_gthp-slides_340
- Digital Object URL:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/gthp_gthp-slides_340#item
- IIIF manifest:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/gthp_gthp-slides_340/presentation/manifest.json
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Please contact holding institution for information regarding use and copyright status.
- Holding Institution:
- Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation
- Rights:
-
