Washington-Wilkes Tourism Director

Ashley Barnett was on Channel 6 television Monday at 12:30 to promote the upcoming Annual Tour of Homes set for April 2-3. . . . There was also a nice advertisement about the tour in a relatively new magazine called Lakelife. The magazine is advertised as “Your guide to living in Georgia’s lake country.” It’s published by Mark Smith who used to be with the Athens Banner-Herald. It’s a beautiful publication.
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This year's Tour has some interesting features. At the invitation of Charlie and Betsy Wagner, to visit their house, which is the Colley-Barksdale-Thomas-Wagner House on North Alexander Avenue, I had a tour of the house and gardens Friday. They have done a fantastic job of restoration and decorating and I was so pleased to note that it looks just like it did during all those years I visited for piano lessons and various other things. The Wagners say they are “outdoor people” and there is much evidence of that in the gardens and other areas of the yard. All of

Miss Gene’s camellias, azaleas, oak hydrangeas, and other shrubbery has been pruned to perfection and they have added walkways and many other things. It’s all beautiful. Don’t miss it. . . . Of course, all the other houses on the tour are beautiful and interesting, too. This is just one that I got to visit personally. Be sure to read The News-Reporter accounts of the houses both in the regular weekly paper and in the upcoming Tour Supplement in next week’s paper. There is a “world of information” there.

Haygralin

Annual Spring Tour of Homes features nine homes April 2-3, 2010

The home of Ellon and Hoyle Penna – 408 South Alexander Avenue The annual Washington-Wilkes Spring Tour of Homes will be held this year on April 2-3, with a total of nine private homes and many other historic places and events available to visitors during the weekend.
FRIDAY, APRIL 2
Candlelight Tour
The Candlelight Tour on Friday night, April 2, will have four homes open for visitors from 6 until 9 p.m. Featured are the homes of Gary and Suzanne Norman at 406 South Alexander Avenue; Kurt Wolf, the Smith-Stratton Cottage at 311 East Liberty Street; the Saunders-Ludwig Loft on The Square; and Fortson Hill on Spring Street, home of Nancy Farris.
A special event of Friday evening will be the Champagne and Dessert Soiree to be held at the Regions Bank, 100 East Robert Toombs Avenue, from 6 to 9 p.m. Skeet Willingham, local historian, will be speaking on “The Legendary Lost Gold of the Confederacy.”
The design for the Regions Bank building is based on the Bank of the State of Georgia, Washington branch, erected in 1824 and demolished in 1904. The building was located approximately where the Wilkes County Courthouse now stands.
It was in this building that Jefferson Davis signed the final acts of the Confederate government and consulted officially with his cabinet and advisors for the last time. The present building was built in 1985.
Tickets for the Candlelight Tour will cost $25.00, and for the Soiree only, $10.00.
Also available for visitors as well as Washington-Wilkes people will be the Washington-Wilkes Little Theater production of the musical “My Fair Lady” at the Bolton Lunceford Playhouse on North Alexander Avenue. Performances will be at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights. Tickets are $10 each.
Tour headquarters on Friday will be at the Washington-Wilkes Chamber of Commerce, 29 West Square, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Headquarters on Saturday will be at the Washington-Wilkes Elementary School, 109 East Street, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
SATURDAY, APRIL 3
Day Tour
The Day Tour on Saturday will have five homes open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., as well as many other historical places. Open for visitors will be the Fortson-Denard Home on the Tignall Road, home of O.A. and Jerry Denard; the Colley-Barksdale Thomas home, 306 North Alexan- der Avenue, home of Charles and Betsy Wagner; the home of Mercer and India Harris, 206 West Robert Toombs Avenue; Haygralin, home of Louis and Carol Harris, 306 South Alexander Avenue; and Pembroke, home of William and Virginia Pope, 217 West Robert Toombs Avenue.
The old North Alexander Avenue School dating from 1897 will also be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for visitors to observe the progress being made in the restoration of the old building.
There will be a drawing at 5 p.m. Saturday for 500 Washington Dollars in the Downtown area.
“My Fair Lady” will be presented at the Bolton Lunceford Playhouse at 8 p.m.
Courtesy Tour Cars will be provided for visitors on Saturday. Cars driven by members of the Kiwanis Club and others will pick-up visitors at the headquarters at the school and take them wherever they wish to go and will be available to take visitors back to the headquarters.
Tickets for the Day Tour are $30 each. Cost of tickets for the two-day Homes and Museums Package are $50.00.
Visitors may tour a single house by paying $5.00 at the door of the house chosen.
The Washington Woman’s Club will provide a luncheon at a cost of $10 each on Saturday. Reservations are suggested, but not required.
The First United Methodist Church will have lunch available from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. No reservation is needed.
Other historic places on the tour include the Jackson Chapel AME Church, Mary Willis Library (quilt display), Robert Toombs House, Callaway Plantation, and the Washington Historical Museum, as well as most of the Washington churches..
Tickets may be ordered from the Washington-Wilkes Tour of Homes, P.O. Box 1293, Washington 30673; by phone, 706-678-2013; or email: wwtourofhomes@gmail.com
All major credit cards are accepted.
Special prices are available for tour groups.
The News-Reporter will feature different houses on the tour in each of its publications from now until tour day. This week’s featured home is that of Ellon and Hoyle Penna, 408 South Alexander Avenue.
This home was designed in a simplified Second Empire style in 1884 by W.W. Thomas, one of the leading architects of the era. General Robert Toombs, Secretary of State of the Confederate States of America, commissioned the architect to build the house for his grandson, Toombs DuBose.
The February 8, 1884, edition of The Washington Gazette described the building as “entirely modern, with tasteful gables, bay windows, and finishings.” Sometimes early in the 20th Century, the building was enlarged with the attachment of a smaller clapboard-sided house that was moved onto the site on rolling logs.
The house contains a wide central hallway, 13 full-sized rooms, plus at least four anterooms, separating the larger rooms from each other. There are three bathrooms and an especially appealing kitchen. There is almost 5,000 square feet of enclosed space and three porches. The entire top floor of the house contains a high-ceilinged attic.
During the mid-20th Century, the house was in the Sims family and at one point one of the Sims sisters, Elizabeth Sims (Mrs. Raymond) Smith, operated a kindergarten in the house for Washington’s children.
The current owners are Ellon and Hoyle Penna who bought the house while living in Florida. They visited Washington-Wilkes in the late 1900s and subsequently bought this house and property in 2002.
They restored and in some cases remodeled the house to make it what it is today.
“As we have restored the character back into this old house,” Mrs. Penna said, “we hope that it will add more charm and magic to this already charming and special town of Washington.”