During the Civil War, friends and members of one family often joined the same company, as did these three Mountville Boys - brothers William B. (left) and Stephen T. Beasley (right) and their cousin Henry Harrison Towns (center). All three survived the War, though Dr. Beasley, an assistant surgeon, was accidently wounded by his own men at Caustins Bluff in Savannah on April 7, 1862.

From Towns Family Papers, courtesy of Randall Allen.

Family members stand in front of George and Antonia Scott's Victorian-style home just off Hamilton Street on Brenda Boulevard in LaGrange in the 1910s. Shown (left to right) are Henry Scott, his mother Antonia Scott, her grand-nephew Paul Kelsey, and her niece Hattie Kelsey Berry. The house burned in the 1920s.

Photo courtesy of Georgia Scott Akers.

This is West Court Square in LaGrange and part of Bull Street in the late 1930s. Today, the cobble-stone street is paved, the parking pattern rearranged, and Court Square renamed LaFayette Square. From its early days as the small store shown in the center, Mansour's has grown to take up the entire block and has other stores across the state.

Nix-Price Photo Collection, Snelson Davis, photographer.

Fuller Earle Callaway, Sr., on his horse, Jim, was once a familiar figure as he rode through the textile communities in LaGrange. His Model T is parked in the background of this 1920s photograph, but Callaway preferred to ride around town on Jim. Callaway helped found several textile mills and businesses in LaGrange and West Georgia.

Nix-Price Photo Collection, Snelson Davis, photographer.

The Magnolias, a one and one-half story weatherboard house, was built in 1833 for Joseph D. McFarland. It is the only surviving example of a house designed by local builder Cullen Rodgers which is not two stories. Located on Hines Street in LaGrange, the house has huge magnolia and pecan trees in its front yard. Descendants of Lewis J. Render lived here between 1880 and 1995.

Photo by David Smith, Troup County Historical Society photos.

This photo graces the cover of our Travels Through Troup County: A Guide to Its Architecture and History. Nutwood is located on Upper Big Springs Road and was built in the 1830s by noted architect Cullin Rodgers.

Photo by John Lawrence, Professor of Art at LaGrange College.

804 E. Main Street, Hogansville

This photo is included in our Travels Through Troup County: A Guide to Its Architecture and History. This 1897 Victorian house has many Steamboat Gothic features including captain's wheels on the front, side gables, and the porch. The wraparound porch has a spindle frieze and turned post railings with a conical roof gazebo attached to the east end. The porch is reminiscent of the steamboats which plied the Mississippi and other rivers. Victorians were fond of bringing nature to the house and this porch provided a sheltered place to enjoy its beauty.

Wilber Trimble chose to build this frame house even though he was the owner of Trimble brickyard just north of Hogansville, GA. R. D. Cole Company of Newnan constructed the house. This home is said to have been the first home in Hogansville designed by an architect. Current theory is that Alexander C. Bruce, an architect from Nashville, TN, and later Atlanta, designed this house. He designed the LaGrange First Methodist Church about the same time and may have been a friend of Mrs. Pearl Trimble. The Hogan family purchased the home in 1917 and raised eight children here. The house has undergone extensive renovations since being purchased by the Arnolds in the 1980s.

Photo by John Lawrence, Professor of Art at LaGrange College.

Intersection of Frost School and Cook Road

This photo is included in our Travels Through Troup County: A Guide to Its Architecture and History. Located in the heart of the Big Springs Community, Combs store is an excellent example of a rural business. The single room building has a front end gable masked by a tall wooden parapet. The double doors and shed roof porch with sqaure posts are typical features of such establishments.

The Big Springs community first developed around Big Springs Methodist Church which started shortly after the county's founding. A commercial center developed just after the turn of the twentieth century. John Williams Combs, the current owner's uncle, built the store about 1907 and it was used as a general store until recently. As postmaster of Big Springs for many years, he also operated a cotton gin and a saw mill. A cotton warehouse dating from the Atlanta, Birmingham, and Coast Railroad era still stands nearby. The AB & C first reached Troup County in 1907. Depots located in communities like Big Springs, Knott, Pyne, and Abbottsford began closing in the 1930s.

Photo by John Lawrence, Professor of Art at LaGrange College.

1200 Vernon Road

This photo is included in our Travels Through Troup County: A Guide to Its Architecture and History. Neel Reid, a well-known Atlanta architect, designed this Italian villa for Mr. and Mrs. Fuller E. Callaway, Sr., to compliment historic Ferrell Gardens. Built between 1914 and 1916, this is considered by architectural experts to be Reid's finest work. The mansion features a variety of facades. The south side faces the gardens and has a Southern feel with its four Ionic engaged columns supporting an elaborate pedimented gable. The north side, with its grand terrace and Palladian features, has a commanding view of the rolling hillside. The use of kneecap or half-barrel terra cotta roofing tiles typifies the Italian style. Fuller Callaway, with the aid of his assistant Ab Perry, served as his own contractor on this project.

Sarah Coleman Ferrell began devloping her boxwood gardens in the 1840s using Italian terracing. Fuller E. Callaway, Sr., a leading industrialist and entrpreneur, bought the property from the Ferrell estate in 1912. His son, Fuller, Jr., was a textile manufacturer and philanthropist. Ida Cason Callaway and her daughter-in-law Alice Hand Callaway have lovingly preserved the gardens.

Photo by John Lawrence, Professor of Art at LaGrange College.

1103 Vernon Street

This photo is included in our Travels Through Troup County: A Guide to Its Architecture and History. Philip Hunter Greene built this grand Greek Revival house in 1843. The massiveness of the six Doric columns matches the unusually large scale of the house. Double front doors of mahogany with transoms and sidelights lead into the house, with its classic four rooms over four and central halls. The six-over-six paned windows are capped with lentils which compliment the framing around the entry way. Built with mortis and tenon construction (where boards are joined without nails), the house features a flush board front and is crowned by a widow's walk (a widow's walk differs from a roof balustrade by being easily accessible from the interior of the house). An 1883LaGrange Reporter article called this "the best built framed house in LaGrange... Mr. P. H. Greene... was three years selecting the timbers for this house."

Local builder Philip H. Greene was referred to as a "mechanical genius" whose inventions included improvements to sawmills, plows, and fencing. Several generations of the Greene family lived here before local merchant Grover Cleaveland bought it for his sister Etta Dodd in 1914. This was the boyhood home of renowned artist Lamar Dodd. In 1985, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation honored Dr. Stanley Hall and his late wife, Christie, for their preservation of this Vernon Road Historic District house.

Photo by John Lawrence, Professor of Art at LaGrange College.

201 Main Street

The Old Post Office and former Board of Education Building, (still standing) Main Street, LaGrange.

Main Street, LaGrange, looking North, c. 1923

A rare snowfall in LaGrange, 1907. Southern Female College was a Baptist-affiliated school located at Church and Smith Streets.

Callaway Mill Village, Hillside area, LaGrange, c. 1920s.

Troup County Courthouse on Court Square in LaGrange, Georgia, built 1902-1904, burned November 5, 1936.