April in Washington, GA & Old Houses

It's April and time for a"pilgrimage" to Washington, Ga.  For years, we have visited this sweet little town outside of Athens, GA.  To be honest, we love to have lunch on the 1st Saturday in April at the First United Methodist Church.  There is always a Tour of Homes.  Here are a few pictures of homes around town not on the tour and I'll post a few on the tour at the end. 

 

This house has a beautiful side porch in the back.  Very ornate .....

Next are three homes that were on the tour.  I was so overwhelmed I forgot to take pictures of the others.

The 1894 Inn

 

Fireplace mantel in living room in 1894 Inn

 1886 Granade Home

1827 Wisteria Hall

And here are a few interior photos of Wisteria Hall.

Ballroom that runs across the middle of the house.

               
     Porch off the ballroom and next to the kitchen.

Other side of the porch. (Yes, that is me in the mirror talking.)

Men's parlor or study.

More children's bedrooms ...

Wisteria Hall is named after all the Wisteria growing on the trees in the front and back yard.

We love April in the South.  It was a wonderful day.  Thank you for joining us on our trip!

Love,

Lottie

Old Houses in Honea Path, SC

Back in 1981, thirty-three years ago, dear husband was working in Honea Path, SC. Honea Path was a mill town of about 3500 people back then, maybe less now.  We lived in a neighboring town and he worked odd hours (a lot of hours) so I got it in my head that I wanted to move to Honea Path,  I found the perfect house!

 

I was a silly young bride who didn't realize how hard it would be to work on such a big house.  The house was for sale for only $25,000 back then and needed paint and a new roof.  I took dear husband to see the house and he noticed all the work that he would have to do on the few hours he was home and train tracks across the back yard!  Then a train came roaring by!  That was the end of that!

Today we came through Honea Path again and we had to drive by the house.  It looked great and the tracks had been taken up in the backyard.  Quite a few houses had had renovations.  Here are just a few pictures we took today on our way home..  

This would have been our neighbor's house on the right.

And past a few houses down on the left we could walk to this beautiful little Carnegie library.

This is a really cute Chippendale style house that was always just beautiful inside.  It is so good to see that someone has made the right choices renovating this house.  It is now a real estate office.  I love the green color it was painted and the rocks added to the porch.

This house has always been known as The Pink Castle and was once a B&B. It is located across the street from the old elementary school which is now a beautiful community center.  Next door is this elegantly simple house.

Take a walk down the street and you come upon this wonderful house with the big porches!

And talk about relaxing on the porch!

Next door has a porch .... and a rock wall!

And this one is being renovated.  It was DH's favorite because of all the potential!

 

And the beautiful intact porch railing!

There are many more homes in Honea Path that have been renovated and are beautiful.  None in these pictures are for sale.  I notice renovation everywhere in Honea Path. 

It is time to drive on home before it gets dark.  Time to put the camera away. 

Hope you enjoyed our stop!

Lottie

A Few Old Houses in Due West, SC

Hello bloggy friends!  You know how I like to take my camera when I travel and pick a street with beautiful old homes and snap pictures to share on my blog.  Sunday afternoon was sunny and warm on our trip to Due West, South Carolina.  Due West is a beautiful college town surrounded by farmland (mostly hay and pasture) and woods.  The area is famous in history because a historic treaty was signed with the Cherokee at a trading post just "due west" on the Cherokee trail.

 But hardly anyone knows that story now.  Due West is famous now for Erskine College, which is ranked very high in the nation for small private colleges, and although it has a great seminary, lots of my friends sent their children to Erskine because of their super science labs!

The above picture is not one of the modern labs but the literary society.  But this post is about the houses.  This is a "little" town with only 1,200 + people living here excluding students.  I don't remember seeing any for sale signs on any houses.  Here are some of my favorite old houses on Bonner Street 

 

This house is being restored.

I thought this cottage was adorable!

This beautiful cottage is on the corner of Bonner St.

Big yellow house next to the library on Main Street.

LARGE house on corner of Main and Abbeville St.  The house faces a beautiful old church!

Abbeville Street and faces the beautiful brown house below.

I love the windows on this brown beauty!  The street beside it goes to the next block beside the post office and dining hall for Erskine College which welcomes residents.  

I love taking my camera and walking down the sidewalk along a historic neighborhood and taking pictures from different angles.  And then I love editing out cars and telephone poles and posting the pictures on the blog. I truly enjoy it!  It is the closest thing I have ever done that could be called a hobby.  Everything else has just been work(or housework).  But this is my last trip.  I'm done.  

We have a house that awaits us to restore.  My husband doesn't enjoy the trips anymore and he is constantly thinking about what needs to be done on our house.  It's not much fun (or sometimes safe) to go alone besides I can't always drive some days.  So, I may resort to taking pictures of birds at the birdfeeder and putting them on the blog!  May take a break from blogging until I get a life. :-)  Hey, I may take some photography lessons!

Anyway, I hope you are having a great day and enjoyed the house tour!  

Love,

Lottie

Drive to Abbeville

Its Easter and its just the two of us again.  We took a drive out to Abbeville  to see the spring flowers.  Would you like to join us?   Come along and enjoy the spring blooms!  Dear husband will narrate today.

I so anticipate the warmth of spring.  We all seem to be having an extended winter.  When I see the thrift bloom in front of old houses in the country, it lets me know all the other blooms will follow.  Sometimes you just see thrift where a house ceased to stand and it is only a reminder of what was once there. ...dear husband

 

Here is thrift on the wall where it accents the house .

But then I look closer and see the flowers in the back!

  
I don't know what these are called, but ...

 

I am so glad the grass hasn't been cut.  

The shamrocks are out and will be blooming soon! 

Dear Husband took the pictures and wrote the blog today.  I'm so thankful for him.
I hope you enjoyed our Easter drive.  Thank you for coming along! 

Love,
Lottie