Posts Tagged ‘jonathan hillyer’

The Wren’s Nest — National Historic Landmark, Fierce Competitor

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The calendar next to my desk is the National Historic Landmarks Photo Contest calendar.  Surprise to no one, I love it.

It doesn’t really mess around with things like “non-American” holidays or fancy words like “solstice” (June 21st: “Summer Begins”).  What it does make room for, however, is the following, marked on August 21st: “National Historic Landmarks Program Established on this Day in 1935.”  I like your priorities, my calendar.

(The Wren’s Nest, positively glowing about its NHL status.)

The Wren’s Nest is, of course, a National Historic Landmark.  In case you’re wondering what that means, exactly, it’s this: that we’re awesome, and way more awesome than most other old things.

The numbers do the talking for us:

• There are over 1,000,000 sites on the National Register of Historic Places.  Not too choosy, but nice, still.
• 80,000 of those bad boys are listed individually.  (The rest are accounted for by things like historic districts and the contributing properties therein.  Nice try, guys.)
• Out of the 80,000 sites on the National Register of Historic Places, only 2,430 are National Historic Landmarks like the Wren’s Nest.  Yikes.
• This is definitive proof that we’re super special.

Obviously, inclusion in this calendar of similarly special old places would be terrific.  Wanna help?  Take a moment to look at the Wren’s Nest’s interior and exterior photos and vote on which one you think we should submit to the contest.  If we win, we’ll totally share the proceeds ($0) with you!

Happy scrutinizing!

Related: This list of National Historic Landmarks by state is neat.  (There are 48 NHLs in Georgia, in case you were interested.)  So is National Historic Landmark Flickr account.  And!  This weekend (August 14th and 15th) is one of the monthly fee-free entrance weekends at more than 100 national parks.  America, good work.

New, Fancy Pants Architectural Photos from Jonathan Hillyer

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Our architectural photographer Jonathan Hillyer just sent in the second batch of Wren’s Nest shots.  These are slightly better than the first crop because I served as photographer’s assistant.

See those lights in the upstairs windows?  See how they make all the difference?  Yep, that was me.

One of the stupid things that Joel Chandler Harris did when he built this house was face it due north.  The sun never really hits the front of the house, so it’s tough to get a truly spectacular daytime shot.  That said, I think this one turned out splendid.

My contribution to this photo was neglecting to call the leaf guy to get the leaves off the roof before the shot was taken.

Also, now might be a good time to mention that all of these photos are copyright Jonathan Hillyer.  Please be sure to credit him if you use ‘em.

Finally, here’s the last of our interior shots that I wasn’t able to post the first time around:

So with this post on the last day of 2009, I’m officially wrapping up our conservation project.

Thanks again to the readers who followed our progress, the donors who allowed us to continue operating the whole time, and the foundations who paid for it all.  Happy New Year.

Sneak Peek of Wren’s Nest Interior

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Jonathan Hillyer, amazing architectural photographer, recently snapped a few photos of the Wren’s Nest to mark the completion of our conservation project.

All photos are copyright Jonathan Hillyer, but if you want to use ‘em, you can ask me nicely.  Here are the first four we could get our grubby little hands on:

This is the girls’ bedroom.  Lillian and Mildred, pictured above the mantle, grew up being called Billie and Tommie.  As I understand it, they were spoiled pretty good.

The living room was probably never this clean when Joel Chandler Harris lived here with his wife, mother, niece, 6 kids, and myriad of farm animals.

The table and chairs in the dining room came as a set from Sears for $25.  Note how the ceiling is wallpapered.  As I understand it, that’s kinda like buying a house today with granite countertops.

Joel Chandler Harris’ bedroom is the most famous room in the house.  It’s dressed for summer because Harris passed away in July of 1908.  When Mrs. Harris sold the house to the Uncle Remus Memorial Association, her stipulation was that this room not be touched, so it’s just as it was when Harris lived here.

The crib is an exception, but it is original to the home and the Harris family.  In fact, it’s still used by the Harris family from time to time.  When I was a wee babe, that was my crib.

Thanks again to Jonathan Hillyer for the photos.  There are a few more where these came from, too.