The Marsh-Warthen House in Lafayette, Georgia is a historic Greek Revival house that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is open as a historic house museum and events venue, and is owned by the government of Walker County, Georgia.
The house was built c.1836 and expanded c. 1895–1910. Colonial Revival modifications were done c.1935.
Description of the House
The Marsh-Warthen House was built in 1836, by Spencer Stewart Marsh and his wife, Ruth Terrell Brantley Marsh. The original house consisted of four rooms over four rooms with wide hallways running through the center of the building on both the upper and lower levels. A large porch with square columns was constructed on the south side of the house; a second-story balcony with a door from the upstairs hall was built over this porch. The original kitchen was in the basement, and food was brought up to the main level by a dumb waiter. The kitchen remained in the basement until about 1900, when the grandson of Spencer Marsh, Spencer Marsh Warthen, built a two-story wing on the northeast side of the house. The lower level of the new wing contained the kitchen and a large pantry, while the upper level was used as servants' quarters.
The Marsh-Warthen House is an early Greek Revival-style home and is significant as an example of a Georgian-type house with original Greek Revival-style and later Colonial Revival-style details. According to Georgia's Living Places: Historic Houses in their Landscaped Settings, a statewide context, the Georgian house was popular in Georgia's towns and cities from the early years of the 19th century well into the 20th century. The Greek Revival style, which was found more often in towns and cities, was popular from the 1840s through the 1860s. The Marsh-Warthen house is thus an early example of the Greek Revival style of architecture on the Georgia frontier. It retains many of its original stylistic features including overall symmetrical massing, low hipped roof, central-hall plan, and architectural details including prominent square Doric columns and a front door surrounded by narrow sidelights and a rectangular line of transom lights above. Due to the presence of African-American slaves on the property, the early construction date of the house, and the tradition of using slave labor in the antebellum period in Georgia, it is likely that Mr. Marsh's slaves were involved in the construction of the house.
Spencer Marsh's youngest daughter, Sarah Adaline, married Nathaniel Green Warthen in 1859. After living on a plantation in McLemore's Cove (northwest of La Fayette) and retreating to the old Warthen home place in Warthen, Washington County, Georgia, during the Civil War, the Warthens and their children moved into the Marsh-Warthen House, probably about 1875, after the death of Mr. Spencer Marsh. Their son, Spencer Marsh Warthen, was responsible for the Colonial Revival elements including the roof dormers added to the house in the early 20th century and for the two additions to the house. According to Georgia's Living Places, the Colonial Revival-style elements were often simply added onto buildings of other styles. The Colonial Revival style was very popular in Georgia from the 1890s through the 1940s.
Marsh Family Business
After settling in Northwest Georgia, Mr. Marsh established a mercantile business on the town square and acquired large tracts of farm and timber lands
In 1845, Spencer Marsh, Andrew Perry Allgood, and W.K. Briers organized the Trion Factory Company, the first cotton mill in Northwest Georgia. The mill was built on the Chattooga River about twelve miles south of La Fayette. Andrew P. Allgood, who married the eldest Marsh daughter, Mary Ann, and Spencer Marsh were some of the wealthiest men in northwest Georgia. By 1857, they each had equal interest in Trion Factory. The factory operated under the name of Marsh & Allgood by the eve of the Civil War. Today the Trion Mill operates under the name of Mount Vernon Mills.
The Marsh Family
Mr. Marsh was born in Chatham County, North Carolina, on November 25, 1799, and was the son of William Marsh, a soldier in the American Revolution for whom the William Marsh chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution (in La Fayette, Georgia) is named. About 1835, Marsh moved his family to "Chattooga," Georgia. Soon after his arrival, the name of the small settlement was changed to La Fayette. In 1835, Northwest Georgia was still Cherokee territory and remained so until 1838, when the Native Americans of the area were removed and settled west of the Mississippi River. By 1835, the Cherokees were a friendly, peaceful people, and the Marsh family befriended many of them.