April auctions feature historic plantation-style homes in Rome, Cedartown
Amid the flurry of real estate auctions are two properties that showcase an era gone by.
In Cedartown, part of the former Peek Plantation dating back to the 1840s is up for auction on April 11. It features a massive four bedroom, three bath plantation-style home on nearly 178 acres, including more than a half mile fronting Big Cedar Creek. Dempsey Auction is in charge of the sale and the owners are willing to sell it in whole or in tracts and combinations.
Making the sale more attraction:This is part of the Peek Plantation farm originally known as “Landfall.” Currently owned by descendants of state Sen. John Phillips Pickett, the home comes with four generations of family heirlooms and furniture as part of the sale. It has ties to the start of the Trail of Tears and also features managed timber lands, the historic home, a two-family servants’ quarters, barns and a three-car garage.
The auction will take place in a tent on property Inspections are set for 10 a.m. Saturday, April 11. Location: From the intersection of U.S. Business 27 and West John Hand Road, just north of downtown Cedartown between the By-Pass and Downtown, go West (Holiday Inn Express) 1.0 mile to Cave Spring Road. Take a right and go 0.2 miles to property.Inspections are set for Friday, March 27, from 2-4 p.m.; Friday, April 3, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.; Thursday and Friday, April 9-10, from 1-4 p.m. Details
Near Rome, at 248 Reynolds Bend Road, a five-bedroom Greek Revival mansion on eight-plus acres also is up for auction April 11. It, too, was built around 1840. Conducted by American Auctioneers, it features the home, a guest house, the plantation office, a six-car garage, pole barn, gunite pool and also is on the National Register of Historic Places. Included on 29-plus additional acres are the carriage house, barn and a pond. It also is being offered whole or in tracts,beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 11. Preview dates are Sunday, March 29, and Saturday, April 4, from 1-4 p.m. as well as Friday, April 10, from noon-5 p.m. or by appointment.. Details
Background (from the website): “Margaretta Hall was constructed in 1840 by J.J. Skinner of Augusta, who received the property in the land grants after the Indian evacuation. One night during the Civil War, Mrs. Margaretta Skinner kept a vigil atop the widows walk waving a lantern to warn the neighbors of Rome’s burning by Gen. Sherman’s troops. Several days later, the Yankee General Corpe ordered the furnishings of the home burned and the Persian rugs cut into strips for horse blankets. The home was spared due to the fact Mrs. Skinner had nursed a young Union soldier back to health, in her hospital located in the basement of the home, and that soldier turned out to be Sherman’s cousin. The original burn hole still remains upstairs in the “Blue Bedroom.” The grave of Lindsey Skinner, son of J.J. and Margaretta Skinner, who perished in the war, remains on the property. This is the remaining property of a once sprawling 2,800-acre plantation. Margaretta Hall has flourished and been nurtured for 175 years for many generations of Floyd County stewards.”
