The Oaks1103 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 1883 LaGrange 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.To view this photograph in full size, simply click on the picture. Previous Page
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