Georgia

Jacob Callaway House, Callaway Plantation, Washington, Georgia (33.774415, -82.812275))

Primary Phase of House         Felling Dates: Winter 1818/19, Summer 1818

Site Master 1720-1818 (yellow pine) CLGAx1 (t = 5.97 WEYN; 5.47 FHWx1; 5.24 dmfas3).

The Grey House at Callaway Plantation has long been recognized as the second Callaway House, built sometime after the original, presumably log, house of Job Callaway (1741-1804), the founder of the Wilkes County family, but long before the Brick House, begun around the middle of the nineteenth century by Parker Callaway (1790 - 1868, the grandson of Job) and finished in 1869 by Aristides Callaway, Job’s great grandson. It has previously been thought that the Grey House was built in the early 1790s by Job to replace a pioneer log house. However, the dendrochronology presented in this report proves that the house was actually built in 1819 and so was the work of Job’s son, Jacob Callaway (1760-1855). The house originally stood on land north of Highway 78, where the Washington-Wilkes County Airport is now located. It was moved to its present site in Historic Callaway Plantation in the 1960s.

The Grey House, which should be known as the Jacob Callaway House, is a fine example of a two-story hall-parlor type of house, fairly common in the southern backcountry. It has two finely finished rooms on each floor connected by a boxed stairway. Above is a semi-finished garret. The woodwork is quite fine for the period and time, especially the fireplaces. The fireplaces and original casing moldings of the windows and doors exemplify typical Federal style woodwork of the region, though some openings have been reworked and some casings date from the restoration after the house was moved. The house has a braced frame, with timbers mostly original. It is now elevated on a slight brick foundation which is undoubtedly inaccurate; it would probably have originally stood on brick or stone piers.

"Worthington, M J and Seiter, J I 2020 ”The Tree-Ring Dating of the Jacob Callaway House, Callaway Plantation, Washington, Georgia,” unpublished Oxford Tree-Ring Laboratory archive report 2020/15"

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