The one cool tidbit about this historic home: it was built by Robert Mills—the same architect who designed and built the Washington Monument in DC. This morning, I fully expected it to be a packed tour as it is a weekend. However, there was only one other older couple besides Adam & Tonna, and Aaron and me. The tour for one house costs $8 and goes up to $22 for four homes, including Woodrow Wilson home (which we should have visited instead).
The home was constructed for Ainsley Hall and his wife Sarah in 1823. But Ainsley died before it was completed. In those days, it took several years to finish building a home unlike today where entire communities can go in a matter of months. When Ainsley died, Sarah donated it to a church. This is a key factor because this house had never been lived in. Keeping that in mind, the tour administrators of this and the other three homes could only guess what the rooms would be used for, and then filled it with some period pieces of furniture and artifacts —not too many—to give one a sense of the times. At the time, the gardens did not exist as the building and grounds were used for educational and religious purposes and those establishments did not have the funds to construct gardens in all their glory.
The home itself was sparsely decorated and made for a very quick tour. Maybe it was the tour guide who really did not make it more entertaining (we have high expectations), or the fact that the home was never lived in and so they did not know what the rooms would be used for, or the fact that the kitchen (which is what I always look forward to) was now the gift shop or so they thought. Anyway, sadly, I was unimpressed with the tour. The home was lovely to look at and the room were spacious. It was a wonderful reprieve from the oppressive heat, so that was a plus.
The highlight for me was to spend time with Adam and Tonna and they also had a chance to see something in their town that they had not seen before. Scotty was adorable, as always, and wanted to play outside the whole time. Maybe I should have joined him 😉
It was so hot outside that we only took a couple pictures and made a beeline to the cars to prevent ourselves from melting away on the spot. All in all, I am always happy to be exploring again.
