Florida Hall – A “Helping Hall” Restored
by Hoyt Oliver
LaTrelle and I are both Methodist preachers’ kids, and grew up never living in a house our families owned. We moved at least every four years; so, when we had the opportunity to buy and restore an historic house in Oxford we responded with young, naïve enthusiasm, not realizing what an enormous task it would be! With the help of many friends and some skilled craftsmen, we were able by Thanksgiving of 1975 to move into Florida Hall, a former Emory College boarding house, one block north and one block west of the campus. Shortly thereafter, an article about us in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was entitled “The House Nobody Loved.” Not so! We have discovered that over about 164 years a whole lot of people have lived in and loved this old house.
History
In 1840, just after the chartering of the Town of Oxford in 1839, lot #46 on Clarke (sic) Street was sold to William Galloway, who purchased three lots for a total of $325.48. Galloway was a builder, responsible for Phi Gamma and Few Halls and Old Main, which was later demolished to be replaced by Seney Hall. The front door of Florida Hall, with side lights and transom, is similar to the Few Hall entrance.
There must have been a house on lot #46 in 1853, when Thomas Fee bought it for $1,000.00. Fee sold the property to Sylvester A. Hough in 1855, though no house is mentioned in the deed. During the ensuing years the Houghs, like many Oxford families, boarded Emory College students in their home. In 1882, Mrs. Mary Hough sold lots #46 and #47 to President Atticus G. Haygood for $2,200, and the house became one of several “Helping Halls.”
Student housing at Emory College in Oxford was at times a contentious issue. After the College’s founding in 1836, students lived in four small four-room dormitories, with families in town, and in several two-room cottages moved by President Few from the former Manual Labor School in Covington. By 1859 the dormitories had a reputation as “facilities of mischief.” The Trustees abandoned that system; thereafter, all students boarded in the homes of faculty and other citizens.
The Helping Hall arrangement began in 1876, when a student suggested to President Haygood that “students of limited means” might live together, being responsible for their own boarding costs. At first, ten students lived together in a six-room cottage rented by the College. By 1883 there were five Helping Halls: Andrew, Marvin, Florida, Georgia, and No.4, which was the President’s home. The house at 312 West Clark Street was Florida Hall, inhabited mostly by students from that state.
Haygood oversaw the Helping Halls and appointed managers for them. Boarding in private homes typically cost students $10 - $17 monthly; Helping Hall costs were $8 - $10 monthly.
By 1895 Georgia, Florida, and No. 4 Halls were no longer in use. Marvin, Andrew, and another, Young A.G. Harris Hall, continued. Of all these Helping Halls, only two or possibly three remain: Florida Hall, the President’s House, and perhaps “Zora Fair’s Cottage” on Asbury Street, which may have been the cottage (known then as The Griffin Place, later Polly Stone Buck’s early twentieth century home) rented as the first Helping Hall. With the construction of Haygood Dormitory in 1913, students again lived on campus, though some continued with town families.
In 1888, Haygood sold Florida Hall to Warren A. Candler, his successor as President of Emory. Candler transferred the property to Emory College in 1897, and the College sold it in 1898. Some anecdotes indicate that students may have continued to live in the house. My paternal grandmother recalled that she and my grandfather, Hoyt P. Oliver, kept a cow and sold milk to the boys in Florida Hall in 1907-1908.
There is a gap in my research of ownership here, but perhaps the property was sold by Emory to W. Z. Anderson, because the heirs of Anderson sold lots # 46 and #47 to Howard Piper in 1932 for $115.00. The Rev. J.E. Cline and Mrs. Eunice Cline bought the property in 1939 for $625.00. Then in 1947, Mrs. Cline sold the house and the two lots to her son, John T. Cline, who did some remodeling and moved in with his British bride, Marie. John Cline also bought from Mrs. R.L. Paine lot #51, adjoining lot #46 to the north. When we purchased the three lots in 1973, we had to obtain sixteen quit claim deeds from members of the Paine family, for a title search of lot #51 showed that Professor Paine had left to his wife only a life interest in the property, not title.
At some point during the first half of the twentieth century, the house known as Florida Hall was divided into apartments – we have heard from several non-owners that their families once lived there. John Cline sold the house and three lots in 1955 to J. Ray Henderson. Henderson must then have sold it to Otis Spillers, for Spillers sold the property to Roscoe Womack, Sr. in 1962. Roscoe Womack, Jr., who was for many years the supervisor of public works for the City of Oxford, remembers growing up there. A small barn used for the Womack mules, chickens, and cow was still standing in 1973; it was probably constructed with lumber from a larger barn that stood on lot #51 in the Paines’ time. Roscoe Womack, Sr. sold the property in 1972 to Bernard Piper, and the house stood vacant for a year. Following extensive discussions, Mr. Piper agreed to sell us the almost four acres of land for $13,000. There would be no additional charge for the house and little barn, which were “falling in.” He required that we purchase all three lots, for his health was poor and he was settling his affairs.
There must have been a house on lot #46 in 1853, when Thomas Fee bought it for $1,000.00. Fee sold the property to Sylvester A. Hough in 1855, though no house is mentioned in the deed. During the ensuing years the Houghs, like many Oxford families, boarded Emory College students in their home. In 1882, Mrs. Mary Hough sold lots #46 and #47 to President Atticus G. Haygood for $2,200, and the house became one of several “Helping Halls.”
Student housing at Emory College in Oxford was at times a contentious issue. After the College’s founding in 1836, students lived in four small four-room dormitories, with families in town, and in several two-room cottages moved by President Few from the former Manual Labor School in Covington. By 1859 the dormitories had a reputation as “facilities of mischief.” The Trustees abandoned that system; thereafter, all students boarded in the homes of faculty and other citizens.
The Helping Hall arrangement began in 1876, when a student suggested to President Haygood that “students of limited means” might live together, being responsible for their own boarding costs. At first, ten students lived together in a six-room cottage rented by the College. By 1883 there were five Helping Halls: Andrew, Marvin, Florida, Georgia, and No.4, which was the President’s home. The house at 312 West Clark Street was Florida Hall, inhabited mostly by students from that state.
Haygood oversaw the Helping Halls and appointed managers for them. Boarding in private homes typically cost students $10 - $17 monthly; Helping Hall costs were $8 - $10 monthly.
By 1895 Georgia, Florida, and No. 4 Halls were no longer in use. Marvin, Andrew, and another, Young A.G. Harris Hall, continued. Of all these Helping Halls, only two or possibly three remain: Florida Hall, the President’s House, and perhaps “Zora Fair’s Cottage” on Asbury Street, which may have been the cottage (known then as The Griffin Place, later Polly Stone Buck’s early twentieth century home) rented as the first Helping Hall. With the construction of Haygood Dormitory in 1913, students again lived on campus, though some continued with town families.
In 1888, Haygood sold Florida Hall to Warren A. Candler, his successor as President of Emory. Candler transferred the property to Emory College in 1897, and the College sold it in 1898. Some anecdotes indicate that students may have continued to live in the house. My paternal grandmother recalled that she and my grandfather, Hoyt P. Oliver, kept a cow and sold milk to the boys in Florida Hall in 1907-1908.
There is a gap in my research of ownership here, but perhaps the property was sold by Emory to W. Z. Anderson, because the heirs of Anderson sold lots # 46 and #47 to Howard Piper in 1932 for $115.00. The Rev. J.E. Cline and Mrs. Eunice Cline bought the property in 1939 for $625.00. Then in 1947, Mrs. Cline sold the house and the two lots to her son, John T. Cline, who did some remodeling and moved in with his British bride, Marie. John Cline also bought from Mrs. R.L. Paine lot #51, adjoining lot #46 to the north. When we purchased the three lots in 1973, we had to obtain sixteen quit claim deeds from members of the Paine family, for a title search of lot #51 showed that Professor Paine had left to his wife only a life interest in the property, not title.
At some point during the first half of the twentieth century, the house known as Florida Hall was divided into apartments – we have heard from several non-owners that their families once lived there. John Cline sold the house and three lots in 1955 to J. Ray Henderson. Henderson must then have sold it to Otis Spillers, for Spillers sold the property to Roscoe Womack, Sr. in 1962. Roscoe Womack, Jr., who was for many years the supervisor of public works for the City of Oxford, remembers growing up there. A small barn used for the Womack mules, chickens, and cow was still standing in 1973; it was probably constructed with lumber from a larger barn that stood on lot #51 in the Paines’ time. Roscoe Womack, Sr. sold the property in 1972 to Bernard Piper, and the house stood vacant for a year. Following extensive discussions, Mr. Piper agreed to sell us the almost four acres of land for $13,000. There would be no additional charge for the house and little barn, which were “falling in.” He required that we purchase all three lots, for his health was poor and he was settling his affairs.
Rebuilding
LaTrelle and I now sought a mortgage loan for purchasing the land and rebuilding the old house. A bank officer at Newton Federal was not responsive; he said he knew Florida Hall. His broken and splinted middle finger was rather indicative of his attitude! Fortunately, a Vice President at Dekalb Federal Savings and Loan had worked previously in Newton County, knew of other restored houses in Oxford, and took a chance on us. The forty thousand dollar loan covered land purchase and the cost of rebuilding. In October of 1973, we were able to buy the three lots and pursue our dream.
We had been thinking of tearing down old Florida Hall and building anew. But Wales Ellis, longtime local master builder, heard about our plans and came calling. He looked with us at the basic structure and said we would get a much better, more solid house by restoring than by building new. LaTrelle recalls his words: “You could never build this much house on an Emory salary, but you can’t afford for me to do the work either.”
Charles E. Ward, father of Alexa DeVetter, surveyed the acreage. Ron Dimery, architect, supplied suggestions for remodeling and the required renderings.
Then we set about “clearing the decks” so we could work. Thirteen junked cars, trucks, and a tractor were hauled off. We removed two garbage truck loads of rubbish from inside. We burned about 40 discarded tires (this was before stricter environmental controls). We cleared a quarter acre of invasive privet brush with the help of Ron Dimery’s tractor and bush hog. A declining, giant pecan tree leaned toward the house and had to be removed. With tractor and scraper blade, I terraced the deeply eroded hillside lot #47, where soil had been excavated to build Clark Street.
Now it was time for the (in)famous RIP-OFF PARTY! On October 7, 1974, we invited some 35 friends to come with their crowbars, hammers, and shovels. In two and a half hours, we had removed the sheet rock, crumbling plaster, and brittle lath from the walls, right down to the studs. Our demolition team included College faculty and staff, a pediatrician, a realtor, a couple of librarians, a registered nurse, and other assorted enthusiasts. They could have eaten far more chili than we gave them! Then, of course, it took us several months to remove all the debris. Bundles of lath provided our seemingly endless supply of kindling.
In the spring of 1975, Hubert White and his crew began work as our contractors in rebuilding, though we also did a lot of the work ourselves. I “busted” and removed the broken concrete slab front porch. Then, Scott Wallace and I, with the wise advice of Jack Ellis, laid a new porch of flagstones trucked in from north Georgia by a Baptist minister, who said he would bring the stone, but it wouldn’t do us any good because the world was going to end in October of that year! We bought used brick from Boots Moon, and LaTrelle cleaned a couple thousand of them for facing the new porch foundation. A cordial black resident saw her toiling for days in the July heat and finally asked if he could tell her something. She thought he would suggest a better method. Instead he offered high praise: “You are the hardest working white lady I ever did see.” With help from Lane Lancaster, I re-glazed 24 old windows, each with 12 panes. (I was relieved when my fenestral period was over.) We observed that some of the exposed original structural lumber had been previously used, as evidenced by old mortises, tenons, and pegs.
The tight budget required our looking for old lumber to salvage. So we explored around and ultimately used parts of six houses, two barns, one school, and one orphanage. A massive door came from Dr. Bob Faulkner’s house on Floyd Street, and another (plus bead board wainscot for the downstairs hall) was from an abandoned house around the corner from us on Hull Street. LaTrelle happened by when an old house was being torn down to make way for the new Post Office in Covington and asked the Postmaster if we might have some of the hand-hewn heart pine joists. “Only if you take all of them!” he said. So, with the help of Bill Ballenger’s trailer, Virgil Eady’s winch, and six college students, I hauled to Oxford all eight 12”x12”, 20-foot long beams. One became a mantel in the living room, against the brick chimney stripped of its horse hair plaster. Another became a support under the west quadrant of the house, which Hubert White and crew raised up about 17 inches with heavy railroad jacks. On April 16, 1977, during an Oxford Historical Society tour of homes, Katherine Weaver signed our guest book [#3] and told LaTrelle that those beams were from her former home.
Originally there were two chimneys and ten fireplaces – one in each room and two in the basement. But the west chimney was collapsing into the basement, so we closed those fireplaces and encased the base in concrete. We enlarged and kept three of the fireplaces, two wood-burning and one of gas logs. For some years we also had a wood stove (bought from Harris Warehouse) in the kitchen/dining room. The old clay mortar in the chimneys has deteriorated, so at present we’re not using the fireplaces.
With a floor machine, coarse buffer pads, and gallons of paint remover, I scrubbed the heart pine floors upstairs and down. Floors in the east wing had been badly damaged by dry rot and were replaced. The front room now has heart pine boards I salvaged from a house that Boots Moon was dismantling in Madison.
Probably when John and Marie Cline bought Florida Hall in 1947, the exterior walls got covered with asbestos/cement shingles. We ripped off a few to see the condition of the original heart pine siding. Werner Gruenhut looked at it and suggested that we sandblast off the remaining lead paint and apply a Cabot Oil product. So, with lots of help, including eight-year-old daughter Laurie, our neighbor, young Rick Wearing, Jackie Ellis, and Scott Wallace on the heights, we removed the shingles and followed Mayor Allgood’s directive to bury the debris in the ditch on the west side of the house, since there was no dump. This was in a time before warnings about the danger of asbestos. Using a rented cherry-picker, Tommy Pegrem and Tommy Love sandblasted the exterior. The house has been re-stained twice in the ensuing 39 years by our son, Erik. We now regret the harsh sandblasting.
Rooks and Rowe made kitchen cabinets of salvaged heart pine flooring. In the downstairs bathroom we used a cast-iron footed tub discarded from the Dean’s home. Hubert’s skilled crew installed new plumbing and trim; and subcontractors added two new furnaces, new sheetrock, and a new roof. Gary Moseley managed electrical installation and advised more outlets, but at $6.00 a drop, our budget was strapped.
Of course there was no insulation, so we stapled fiberglass between the studs and ceiling joists – and should have used more! Unfortunately, we didn’t insulate under the floor. After our moving in on Thanksgiving weekend, 1975, I went off to direct a two-week field course in Atlanta and came back to find LaTrelle and the children looking through cracks into the basement! The house had never before had central heating, so the floor boards shrank. I then had to insulate the basement ceiling also.
Since our early efforts, work has continued, for work on an old house never ends. We have painted and wallpapered, remodeled bathrooms, enclosed the back porch for a new kitchen, added carpets upstairs and a new stone-coated steel roof. We bought a tenant house from Carey Allgood and used the old wood to clad a new “carriage house” for tool storage and my woodworking shops. We dammed up Turkey Creek to make a little pond from which I irrigate my vegetable garden. We have established a natural playscape in the back yard where our three grandsons and their friends can romp and dig and climb.
Living in Oxford, we are blessed with a caring community, the ever-increasing educational endeavors of Oxford College, the beauties of woodlands, and deep participation in special history. We’re grateful! And we have enjoyed sharing old Florida Hall. Our guest books, maintained from January of 1976 through December of 1999, record a wealth of treasured signatures, local and afar – including Andrew & Olive Ann (Burns) Sparks [bk2], Polly Stone Buck [bk3], William Holmes Borders [bk4], Bill (William Sloan) Coffin [bk4], Sally Fitzgerald [bk5].
We had been thinking of tearing down old Florida Hall and building anew. But Wales Ellis, longtime local master builder, heard about our plans and came calling. He looked with us at the basic structure and said we would get a much better, more solid house by restoring than by building new. LaTrelle recalls his words: “You could never build this much house on an Emory salary, but you can’t afford for me to do the work either.”
Charles E. Ward, father of Alexa DeVetter, surveyed the acreage. Ron Dimery, architect, supplied suggestions for remodeling and the required renderings.
Then we set about “clearing the decks” so we could work. Thirteen junked cars, trucks, and a tractor were hauled off. We removed two garbage truck loads of rubbish from inside. We burned about 40 discarded tires (this was before stricter environmental controls). We cleared a quarter acre of invasive privet brush with the help of Ron Dimery’s tractor and bush hog. A declining, giant pecan tree leaned toward the house and had to be removed. With tractor and scraper blade, I terraced the deeply eroded hillside lot #47, where soil had been excavated to build Clark Street.
Now it was time for the (in)famous RIP-OFF PARTY! On October 7, 1974, we invited some 35 friends to come with their crowbars, hammers, and shovels. In two and a half hours, we had removed the sheet rock, crumbling plaster, and brittle lath from the walls, right down to the studs. Our demolition team included College faculty and staff, a pediatrician, a realtor, a couple of librarians, a registered nurse, and other assorted enthusiasts. They could have eaten far more chili than we gave them! Then, of course, it took us several months to remove all the debris. Bundles of lath provided our seemingly endless supply of kindling.
In the spring of 1975, Hubert White and his crew began work as our contractors in rebuilding, though we also did a lot of the work ourselves. I “busted” and removed the broken concrete slab front porch. Then, Scott Wallace and I, with the wise advice of Jack Ellis, laid a new porch of flagstones trucked in from north Georgia by a Baptist minister, who said he would bring the stone, but it wouldn’t do us any good because the world was going to end in October of that year! We bought used brick from Boots Moon, and LaTrelle cleaned a couple thousand of them for facing the new porch foundation. A cordial black resident saw her toiling for days in the July heat and finally asked if he could tell her something. She thought he would suggest a better method. Instead he offered high praise: “You are the hardest working white lady I ever did see.” With help from Lane Lancaster, I re-glazed 24 old windows, each with 12 panes. (I was relieved when my fenestral period was over.) We observed that some of the exposed original structural lumber had been previously used, as evidenced by old mortises, tenons, and pegs.
The tight budget required our looking for old lumber to salvage. So we explored around and ultimately used parts of six houses, two barns, one school, and one orphanage. A massive door came from Dr. Bob Faulkner’s house on Floyd Street, and another (plus bead board wainscot for the downstairs hall) was from an abandoned house around the corner from us on Hull Street. LaTrelle happened by when an old house was being torn down to make way for the new Post Office in Covington and asked the Postmaster if we might have some of the hand-hewn heart pine joists. “Only if you take all of them!” he said. So, with the help of Bill Ballenger’s trailer, Virgil Eady’s winch, and six college students, I hauled to Oxford all eight 12”x12”, 20-foot long beams. One became a mantel in the living room, against the brick chimney stripped of its horse hair plaster. Another became a support under the west quadrant of the house, which Hubert White and crew raised up about 17 inches with heavy railroad jacks. On April 16, 1977, during an Oxford Historical Society tour of homes, Katherine Weaver signed our guest book [#3] and told LaTrelle that those beams were from her former home.
Originally there were two chimneys and ten fireplaces – one in each room and two in the basement. But the west chimney was collapsing into the basement, so we closed those fireplaces and encased the base in concrete. We enlarged and kept three of the fireplaces, two wood-burning and one of gas logs. For some years we also had a wood stove (bought from Harris Warehouse) in the kitchen/dining room. The old clay mortar in the chimneys has deteriorated, so at present we’re not using the fireplaces.
With a floor machine, coarse buffer pads, and gallons of paint remover, I scrubbed the heart pine floors upstairs and down. Floors in the east wing had been badly damaged by dry rot and were replaced. The front room now has heart pine boards I salvaged from a house that Boots Moon was dismantling in Madison.
Probably when John and Marie Cline bought Florida Hall in 1947, the exterior walls got covered with asbestos/cement shingles. We ripped off a few to see the condition of the original heart pine siding. Werner Gruenhut looked at it and suggested that we sandblast off the remaining lead paint and apply a Cabot Oil product. So, with lots of help, including eight-year-old daughter Laurie, our neighbor, young Rick Wearing, Jackie Ellis, and Scott Wallace on the heights, we removed the shingles and followed Mayor Allgood’s directive to bury the debris in the ditch on the west side of the house, since there was no dump. This was in a time before warnings about the danger of asbestos. Using a rented cherry-picker, Tommy Pegrem and Tommy Love sandblasted the exterior. The house has been re-stained twice in the ensuing 39 years by our son, Erik. We now regret the harsh sandblasting.
Rooks and Rowe made kitchen cabinets of salvaged heart pine flooring. In the downstairs bathroom we used a cast-iron footed tub discarded from the Dean’s home. Hubert’s skilled crew installed new plumbing and trim; and subcontractors added two new furnaces, new sheetrock, and a new roof. Gary Moseley managed electrical installation and advised more outlets, but at $6.00 a drop, our budget was strapped.
Of course there was no insulation, so we stapled fiberglass between the studs and ceiling joists – and should have used more! Unfortunately, we didn’t insulate under the floor. After our moving in on Thanksgiving weekend, 1975, I went off to direct a two-week field course in Atlanta and came back to find LaTrelle and the children looking through cracks into the basement! The house had never before had central heating, so the floor boards shrank. I then had to insulate the basement ceiling also.
Since our early efforts, work has continued, for work on an old house never ends. We have painted and wallpapered, remodeled bathrooms, enclosed the back porch for a new kitchen, added carpets upstairs and a new stone-coated steel roof. We bought a tenant house from Carey Allgood and used the old wood to clad a new “carriage house” for tool storage and my woodworking shops. We dammed up Turkey Creek to make a little pond from which I irrigate my vegetable garden. We have established a natural playscape in the back yard where our three grandsons and their friends can romp and dig and climb.
Living in Oxford, we are blessed with a caring community, the ever-increasing educational endeavors of Oxford College, the beauties of woodlands, and deep participation in special history. We’re grateful! And we have enjoyed sharing old Florida Hall. Our guest books, maintained from January of 1976 through December of 1999, record a wealth of treasured signatures, local and afar – including Andrew & Olive Ann (Burns) Sparks [bk2], Polly Stone Buck [bk3], William Holmes Borders [bk4], Bill (William Sloan) Coffin [bk4], Sally Fitzgerald [bk5].
Sources
Buck, Polly Stone. The Blessed Town: Oxford, Georgia, at the Turn of the Century. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1986.
Bullock, Henry Morton. A History of Emory University. 1936; reprinted Atlanta: Cherokee Publishing Company, 1972.
Oliver, Erik Blackburn. Cornerstone and Grove: A Portrait in Architecture and Landscape of Emory’s Birthplace in Oxford, Georgia. Oxford College of Emory University, 2009.
Deed records from Office of Probate Court, Newton County, Georgia.
Buck, Polly Stone. The Blessed Town: Oxford, Georgia, at the Turn of the Century. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1986.
Bullock, Henry Morton. A History of Emory University. 1936; reprinted Atlanta: Cherokee Publishing Company, 1972.
Oliver, Erik Blackburn. Cornerstone and Grove: A Portrait in Architecture and Landscape of Emory’s Birthplace in Oxford, Georgia. Oxford College of Emory University, 2009.
Deed records from Office of Probate Court, Newton County, Georgia.