College Hill.
The handsome, two-story, frame structure features weatherboarded and clapboarded walls, a gable roof, and a brick chimney at each end. Of special interest is the two-tiered veranda extending across the entire main facade. At its front and sides on both levels are a series of segmental arches supported by delicate square columns on high pedestals. The fine balustrade is composed of delicate, sheaf-like balusters. Central double doors are located on the front of both stories. The doors are framed by pilasters and sidelights and topped by segmental fanlights. The windows have exterior louvered shutters. A one-story kitchen, added in 1898, extends from the southwest rear corner of the house.
The central hall, which contains a U-shaped stairway, divides the main section of the structure into two pairs of rooms. The larger front two are equipped with fireplaces and have original mantels decorated in the Adam style. Behind the main hall is a smaller rear hall. The hall walls are plastered, and the board walls of the principal rooms are covered with paper and wainscoting. Five bedrooms occupy the second floor. The original kitchen was situated in a separate building that is no longer extant.
Known today as the Walton-Harper House, since 1885 College Hill has been owned by the Harper family, descendants of Walton. Little altered but never restored, it is a private residence and is not shown publicly.
Meadow Garden, Georgia ⊗
Location: Richmond County, 1320 Nelson Street, Augusta.
About 1790 Gov. George Walton moved from Savannah to Augusta, then the capital. At that time, he built Meadow Garden cottage at the northern edge of the city, on confiscated Loyalist lands in his possession. He resided in it until 1795, the year he constructed and occupied a larger home, College Hill, just west of Augusta. He deeded Meadow Garden under trusteeship to Thomas Watkins, who later conveyed it to George Walton, Jr. Over the years, it has been doubled in size and otherwise altered.
Meadow Garden.