Published: May 13, 2008 01:52 pm            

Griffeth-Pendley House listed in National Register

ATLANTA — The Griffeth-Pendley House, located on Cove Road near Jasper, in Pickens County, was listed in the National Register on April 16, 2008. The property owner sponsored the nomination and a consultant prepared the nomination materials.

The log dogtrot house was built by Caleb (Cale) Griffeth, III who had received a 110-acre share of family land from his father, Caleb Griffeth, II in 1877. Newly married to Winnie Malissa Pendley, the Griffeths farmed 12 acres of their land in corn and owned cows, mules, pigs, and chickens. The Griffeths were typical farmers for Pickens County and relied on income from timber cutting and an apple orchard in addition to small-scale farming.

Needing more room for their large family, the Griffeths and their six sons built another house in 1905 and sold the log dogtrot house to Thomas Monroe Pendley, Winnie's brother. Pendley had served time in state prison during the 1880s for illegal whiskey making and arson, but by 1890 had reformed and turned to farming. Pendley increased the apple orchards and added peach trees to the property and became one of the largest landowners in the area.

After Pendley's death in 1935, his daughter, Daisy Pendley Fann, inherited the Griffeth-Pendley House and property. Daisy's husband, Clemar Eli Fann worked at the Georgia Marble Company while Daisy and the children farmed the property. Upon Daisy's death in 1941, Cale Griffeth's youngest son, Vernie, purchased the house and property. The property remains in the Griffeth family today.

The house is being recognized at the state level of significance in architecture as an excellent and intact rare example of a late-19th-century log dogtrot house that retains its open passage between the two rooms and has remained essentially unchanged since 1905.

The house is a one-story, hewn-log dogtrot with two unequal-sized rooms separated by an open breezeway. Around 1905, one room was added to the rear of the living room, a wall was added to the living room to create an additional bedroom, and the house was sided with vertical rough-cut planking. The full-width, shed-roof porch was constructed in 1941. The interior of the house retains its historic floor plan and original wood floors. Modern paneling covers the walls. The kitchen retains its plaster ceiling and an antique cook stove. Also on the property are an 1877 saddle-notch log barn with a shed addition, the 1877 privy, and the 1877 well with a 1948 well house.

The National Register is the federal government's official list of historic buildings, structures, sites, objects, and districts worthy of preservation. According to Richard Cloues, deputy state historic preservation officer, listing in the National Register recognizes a property's significance and ensures that the property will be taken into account in the planning of federally funded or licensed projects. In addition, owners of income producing National Register properties may be eligible for rehabilitation tax incentives.



For more information on the National Register and other preservation programs, contact the Historic Preservation Division of the Department of Natural Resources at 404-656-2840 or visit our Web site at www.gashpo.org. ###

        

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