Palmetto Lodge
Historic Property
Alternate Name:
Seven Gables
Street Address:
1208 Georgia Avenue, North Augusta, SC
Site Number:
S108042001100098
Site Number:
2-26-4
Category:
Building
Construction Date:
circa 1903
Historic Use:
Residential/Domestic
Current Use:
Residential/Domestic
Roof Materials:
slate
Signficant Architectural Features:
According to Mrs. J. B. Alexander, this building contains four large rooms on the ground floor and eleven rooms upstairs. The large entrance hall, surrounded by a balcony on three sides, reaches for two stories and is completely paneled. Paneling is used throughout the ground floor, on both walls and ceilings. The exterior was constructed of palmetto logs and the interior of cypress timber (the palmetto logs are now covered with stucco). 2 1/2-story building. Multi-gabled roof. First floor appears to be stucco, second floor vertical board siding, and gable ends half-timbered. This building has at least two chimneys. South elevation: three gabled projections, which have decorative half-timbered designs in their gabled ends; the gable of the central projection is lower than the other two, and, unlike the other two, does not have a casement window in its half-timbered end (the design of which is more elaborate than the others); the gabled wings at either end of the south elevation feature oriel windows on the second story; on the first floor of this side is a central entrance and many 6/1 windows. East elevation: porte cochere with flat roof; gabled projection in the center of this side features an exterior chimney; on the second floor are casement windows with transoms on the first floor are windows, most of which are 6/1. North elevation: one-story gabled weatherboarded wing. West elevation: gabled polygonal bay on the second floor; one-story porch on the first floor. OUTBUILDINGS: Twenty-room motel behind the old lodge.
Historical Information:
Built ca. 1903 as a lodge, this building was used instead as a private residence by the John W. Herbert family of New York, who moved in shortly after it was completed. Perhaps the most famous owner and tenants were author Edison Marshall and his family. Marshall's mounted elk, bear, and water buffalo heads from African safaris still hang on the walls of the motel lounge and in a large adjoining room. The building is reputed to have had famous guests, including Harvard Firestone of the company fame, President William Howard Taft, and a member of the Rockefeller family.
Source of Historical Information:
Thornhill, Susan. "Seven Gables." The Augusta Chronicle (Augusta. Ga.). October 14, 1981, p. 2-3 P; LSCOG survey files. History of North Augusta, p. 80B, 24. (This building is in an area not covered by the Sanborn maps of North Augusta.)
Survey:
North Augusta Survey, 1982
Archives Location:
Box 11, Series 108042, Survey of historic resources (county by county data on surface properties), circa 1971-2014
