Founders House, kitchen, smokehouse – UGA 650–652 (1860, Category 1). Founders House is an antebellum residence located east of South Lumpkin Street that was built to house University professors. The house was built in conjunction with a kitchen building and smokehouse. Following the Civil War, the house was also used as a dining hall and sorority house. Later, it served as the headquarters for the department of landscape architecture.
After the Department of Landscape Architecture moved from the building in 1956, the Student Placement Office took its place. In 1959, the Garden Club of Georgia obtained use of the kitchen building and restored it for their use as state headquarters. In 1961, they entered into an agreement with the University to lease the main house, which they restored with the assistance of architect Edward Wade of Augusta. The work was completed in 1963, and the house decorated and furnished with antiques reflecting the antebellum period and opened to the public as a house museum.283 The house now serves as a period museum and is the headquarters of the Garden Club of Georgia. The property is individually listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Founders House is a two-story brick residence with its primary facade facing South Lumpkin Street. A Belgian-block court marks the entrance into the house.
The property is accessed by a driveway that leads into the property from South Lumpkin Street.
The house features a raised gabled central entrance porch ornamented with cast- iron columns, and main floor reached by a set of curving steps edged with a balustrade. The facade is symmetrical and representative of Federal style residential design, with twelve-over-twelve shuttered wood double-hung windows arranged around the entrance. The doorway is trabeated and edged by side lights and lights above the door in the Greek Revival style. The gable roof is low-pitched with a simple cornice above the main block. Interior chimneys extend through the roof at the gable ends of the house.
As originally constructed, the house consisted of two stories. Each floor featured two rooms and a central hall. A single 20 by 40 foot room was later added to the rear at the end of the hall. It features a single chimney at the end. Two small one- story wings, one of clapboard and one of brick, were later added to either side of the main block.284
The kitchen building has two doorways leading into two interconnecting rooms. It features interior chimneys at either gable end. Windows are six-over-six.285
The smokehouse has a door that opens onto the courtyard at the rear facade, and a bay window that is a later addition.286
Together with the kitchen building and smokehouse, the main house encloses a courtyard behind that was developed in the 1930s and 1940s as the Founders Memorial Garden. Brick outbuildings are located at the rear of the building.
Founders House is in very good condition and well maintained. The building retains integrity, with only minor alterations, and may be individually eligible for listing in the National Register. Founders House is discussed in the National Register nomination for the property; however, the nomination form is an older document and would benefit from Additional Documentation.287 The house is assessed as Category 1.
