LIFESTYLE
THE CHAMPION, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21 - 27, 2019 • PAGE 20
The Cora Beck Hampton Schoolhouse and House is a rare example of a one-room schoolhouse and teacher’s The Hillyer Family Georgian Cottage built in 1890 has been called a perfect example of what the State
residence located on the same property. The school closed after a public school opened in Decatur in 1902. Historic Preservation Office calls “possibly the single most popular and long-lived house type in Georgia.”
The residence on Hillyer Place is currently under renovation.
Tour tells Decatur’s history through architecture
BY KATHY MITCHELL
FREELANCE REPORTER
Much of Decatur’s history
is told through its buildings; and
thanks to sometimes-aggressive
preservations efforts, many
churches, offices and private
homes—some of which are
repurposed—still stand to help
tell the city’s story. Part of that
history unfolds during DeKalb
History Center’s Historic Decatur
Architectural Walking Tour, which
includes “vastly different floor
plans, architectural styles, and
histories,” spanning from 1830-
1965.
On Nov. 6, during the last
such tour of the season—tours
are scheduled to begin again in
the spring—the History Center’s
Marissa Howard took a group on
the approximately one-mile stroll
that started at the historic DeKalb
County Courthouse that now houses
the History Center. Its website notes
that the tour is “designed for history
lovers and architecture buffs alike.”
The first stop was the Decatur
Recreation Center on Sycamore
Street, built in 1958. Howard
explained that the building is an
example of the international—or
modem, or progressive—style
that originated in the late 1930s
from the German art school the
Bauhaus. “Very high style versions
are easier to identify due to their
volume, and ‘white’ aesthetic of
steel, concrete, and glass with the
building devoid of ornament but
expressive of function,” she said.
“This style emphasized volume
over mass, which is the reason for
the flat roof This was a popular
school, government and institutional
style in Georgia in the 1950s and
1960s but was often expressed
vernacularly with red brick instead
of white concrete,” Howard said,
adding, “If you look closely, the
entrance is differentiated from the
main block of the building - it
features a different size of brick laid
in a different pattern from the main
block.”
Other highlights of the tour
included a stop at Stamford
Apartments, an example of Italian
Renaissance Revival built in 1929.
“This apartment building shows
how our national economy began
to change,” Howard said. “The
large houses of the Victorian or
Neoclassical periods that had room
for live-in servants, were becoming
less affordable and desirable. In the
South, you begin to see newly built
multi-family apartment buildings
that had no accommodations for
staff Many of these were built close
to city centers and provided an
affordable option.”
She said the apartments,
located on North Candler Street,
are “a modest example of Italian
Renaissance Revival architecture”
and pointed out that the building
“also has a one-story garage unit in
the back—probably long enough for
each unit to have one 1920s sized
car.”
Farther down North Candler
were three Queen Anne cottages
built around 1890; Howard singled
out the peach and white one. “Of
the three, this one seems most
original. It was probably built about
as you see it today... .The gables
show the most ornamentation
with easy-to-craft but consistently
used elements, which are often
called ‘ folk Victorian; ’... the porch
posts are probably not original but
could have been changed during
the 1920s-1930s to appear more
‘craftsman.’”
A residence on Barry Street was
simply called the Blue Mystery
Small House.
“This small house is more
challenging to identify than you
might think,” according to Howard.
Like another small house on the
tour, the Tiny Yellow House on Pate
Street, originally built with only
one room and one fireplace and 694
square feet of living space-what
was known as a single pen-might
have been living quarters for
servants or other workers of modest
means, she said. “Decatur was
not as rigidly racially segregated
as most Southern towns, "she
commented, “so it’s possible that
African Americans lived in some of
these houses.”
The Blue Mystery Small
House “could have started as a
Hall-Parlor Cottage,” Howard
noted, mentioning a style tour
participants would see later at
Cora Beck Hampton Schoolhouse
and Home on Hillyer Place. “The
Cora Beck Hampton Schoolhouse
and House is a rare example of
a one-room schoolhouse and
teacher’s residence located on the
same property. The buildings were
constructed by Hampton, a young
widow with one daughter, and the
school opened in 1892. It operated
for 10 years until Hampton was
forced to close because of decreased
enrollment resulting from the
opening of Decatur’s first public
school in 1902. Originally two
separate structures, the buildings
were joined sometime after the
school closed.”
Also, on Hillyer Place is the
Hillyer Family Georgian Cottage
built in 1890. One of three houses
built by Judge George Hillyer
for his daughters, the residence
was named for its association with
18th century English Georgian
architecture, Howard explained.
“The State Historic Preservation
Office calls this ‘possibly the single
most popular and long-lived house
type in Georgia.’ This is a perfect
example,” she said.
The tour included an example
of one of the area’s most widely
recognized house styles, the
craftsman bungalow. “The
craftsman bungalow spread
throughout Decatur from the 1910s
through the 1930s. They feature
low-pitched roof lines with front
or side gables and are generally
one-story... .A number of these in
Decatur were designed by local
architect Leila Ross Wilburn,”
she said, noting that the one near
Sycamore and Commerce streets
on the tour is not an example of
Wilburn’s work. “Wilburn was
the only woman known to have
published plan books for contractors
and house builders and she
described her specialty as ‘small
low-cost homes’ for the South,
which gave the middle class a
variety of size options to suit many
economic ranges.”
