Along the Antebellum Trail

On a beautiful autumn weekend in Dixie, football may be KING----but pickin' should at least be QUEEN, right? (That's ANTIQUE pickin' of course----most of the cotton around here has already been picked)

While everyone else was heading to the games or the mountains, I drove South---swapping the view of car bumpers for the view of stately homes along Georgia's historic Antebellum Trail---hoping to find two of my favorite things: good pickin' and architectural dereliction to photograph.

On the way to Madison--my first stop on the AT (which runs from Athens to Macon)--I went through Bostwick, a tiny town known for cotton and cyclists (this being a favorite scenic route to ride) and guilt/envy already sets in....I should be out riding my bike! (I spend more time on two wheels WITHOUT an engine these days) But it's really hard to carry antiques that way, right?

Bostwick is home to the Cotton Gin Festival the first Saturday in November, and there were trailers full of newly-picked cotton behind the working gin that sits along the road.



Madison has the largest National Historic District in the state, and is a show-stopper with all the incredibly restored homes and the scenic downtown area.....but I crave dereliction, so I press on....

Eatonton and Milledgeville are next on the trail--Eatonton has a rich literary history (think Alice Walker, Joel Chandler Harris, and Andalusia, the home of Flannery O'Connor which is nearby) and Milledgeville used to be the state capitol, so it has some incredible buildings and stately homes.

(wonder what the INSIDE of this upper floor room loooks like!)

Love that classic Southern architecture! (Compared to the huge elegant mansions--this must have been a middle class home?)

While at the Eatonton Antiques Market (I did find a great chippy green table there), I asked the owner if he knew of any interesting "un-restored" historic homes in the area, and he told me about a cool place at the very end of a nearby road, and said, "you'll come to some gate posts, but just drive on in--I don't think any one lives there".

I drove to the gate posts, and was dying to go in....but what if someone DID live there? My curiosity got the best and I drove towards the house....

....it had an interesting roof-line and what seemed like unusual architecture for this area, but it was a bit hard to see with the overgrown bushes.

As I came closer, I noticed lace curtains in the windows and porch lights on, and decided to beat a hasty retreat---it was too pretty of a day to be shot at!



On a side street, south of Milledgeville was the KING of derelict mansions: an old "summer home" of an early 1900's governor.....
This place had the most incredible iron fencing and posts! and what a cool mansion! It looked empty, but apparantly someone did live here.....barking dogs soon came running out to protect it.

I couldn't get very good pics of the house and grounds, but it was really fabulous!
I'm so glad all these towns, homes, and history along the AT escaped Sherman's burning march to Savannah!

I didn't find much in the way of good pickin's, but I did get to meet some interesting people! (be sure to stop by "Jean's Antiques"-- in a little house just south of the gov's mansion above)

From the cotton fields and pecan groves, to the mountains and (my personal favorite) the coastline----I really heart this state!