Hollywood Plantation, Thomasville Georgia

Date added: September 27, 2023 Categories: Georgia House Mansion Plantations & Farms

Front facade, closer view, identical to 1940s postcard view looking northwest (2003)

Mr. and Mrs. Henry K. Devereux built the stately brick house known as "Hollywood" in 1928, on the site of their home, which burned on January 20th, 1928. The Devereux's purchased the old winter home in 1915, and had added wings and other improvements. The servants and people who saw the blaze from the Country Club across the street saved much of the interior "furnishings and furniture". The wood frame house burned to the ground in about an hour. The Devereuxs announced their intentions to rebuild in March of that year.

The newspaper reported that the architect would be Mr. John B. Thomas, formerly of New York, but now located in Thomasville. The builder was to be Mr. E. Q. Stacey and the projected cost was $75,000. Mr. Stacey's son resided in Thomasville until his death in 1999. He stated that Abraham Garfield was the original architect for the house, but was fired. However, no documentation has been found to substantiate this assertion. Mr. Gene Cone, born, raised and employed on the estate, worked as the water boy on the construction site. He recalled that the architect was fired during the construction process, but did not remember the man's name.

John B. Thomas had moved to Lake Wales, Florida, from New York, sometime around 1925. He worked on at least two buildings in Lakes Wales; the Rhodesbilt Arcade (1926) and the Burns Arcade (remodeled by Thomas in 1925-26). He is also credited with the plans for the Scenic Highlands Hospital.

The newspaper described the house as "brick colonial with a thick non-fading green slate roof that will be absolutely fireproof. The exterior finish will be of Jefferson hand-molded brick, identical with that used by Thomas Jefferson in building the famous home Monticello."

Henry Kelsey Devereux was an industrialist, harness horse fancier and philanthropist. Like many other wealthy northerners who moved to Thomasville in the late 1800s and the early 1900s, Devereux was extremely interested in horses. "Henry was an avid promoter of the fine harness horse, having been interested in trotting races while in his youth. In a day when wealthy sportsmen drove their own trotting horses at racetracks, he won many races and accumulated countless trophies and ribbons in competition with other gentleman amateur contemporaries. He was President of a chain of racetracks known as the Grand Circuit Racing Association, President of the League of Amateur Driving Clubs and the Gentleman's Driving Club of Cleveland. He served as Secretary and President of the American Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, and was a member of the review board of the National Trotting Association. In Company with others, he formed the Cleveland Pastime Stable." Devereux was also a founding member of the exclusive Georgia-Florida Field Trial Club in 1916. This club was formed to promote the use of dogs in hunting quail and still operates today.

Devereux retired from business in 1911 to devote all of his time to breeding and facing trotting horses. In 1912, the Pastime Stables were established as a winter training camp in Thomasville. Henry wrote an article for the Thomasville Times-Enterprise which ran June 28th, 1919, detailing the history of the Pastime Track, a racing track, located to the north of his home (the site of the later 1928 Hollywood house) off Monticello Road. He was a partner in its operations, along with Mr. Coburn Haskell, who originally created Pastime Stables, and Mr. F.N. Ellis. The article discussed the many successful "winter trained trotters and colts" that ran on this track. A 1925 magazine article stated "The racers are exercised every morning over the splendid half-mile track which Is located in the southern section of the city, near the new hospital. The green circle of grass with white buildings in the background, presents a lovely view to travelers on Gordon Avenue. ... The climate here for winter training is said to be as good as can be found anywhere."

In 1928, it was reported that for the eighteenth year in a row, Devereux was elected president of the Grand Circuit, a circuit of tracks devoted exclusively to harness racing. The paper further reported, "Mr. Devereux is nationally known and admired by all lovers of the trotter and pacer. He is a breeder, an accomplished driver, though he never has driven professionally and it may be truthfully said of him, that the year around he 'lives' in the saddle for he is an enthusiastic equestrian."

Henry was born in 1860 to John Henry Devereux (a railroad magnate) and Antoinette Cecilia (Kelsey) Devereux of Cleveland, Ohio. He received his early education at Brooks Military Academy in Cleveland. While at the Academy, he posed for the artist Archibald MacNeal Willard's painting entitled "The Spirit of '76". Willard's painting was prepared for the Philadelphia Centennial commemoration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. In 1883, he graduated from Yale and began working with his father in the railroad business, eventually becoming an official of the Winslow Car Roofing Company and later the treasurer of the Paige Car Wheel Company. In 1885 he married Mildred Abeel French, with whom he would have three children. His Ohio estate was at Nutwood Farm in Wickliffe, not far from Cleveland.

After 1897, Henry Devereux served as Treasurer, Vice-President or director for many businesses, including; the Cleveland Railway Supply Company, the Brady Metal Company (New York), the Railway Steel Spring Company (New York), and the Paterson-Sargent Paint Company (Cleveland). Devereux died in Thomasville on May 2^nd, 1932.

This property illustrates the continued importance of the wealthy northern visitors and property owners to Thomasville and Thomas County. While much of the promotion of Thomasville focuses on the Victorian and "Resort" eras, the plantations and their owners have continued to have a great impact on this area into the present. The 1925 issue of Rose Leaves features two articles written by Cleveland visitors: Flora A. Hanna and A. H. Hough. An Editor's Note gives the following explanation for their fondness of Thomasville:

These people [winter residents] are fond of Thomasville and take pleasure in recommending it as the South's Aristocratic Playground. Thomasville has been recognized as having an ideal climate for years by some of America's most prominent families, who have built estates immediately adjacent to the City amid the virgin pine forests, where the stately trees still grow in their pristine glory, mute witnesses to the wonders of the days that have gone.

Thomasville's first appeal is to the wealthy man who desires to winter in the South's congenial climate yet would be away from the ostentatious hilarity of the fashionable set that feels it incumbent upon itself to grace the sands of the seaside resorts further south.

Recreational horse activities, not limited to the popular quail-hunting pastime, were oy common for the wealthy plantation owners in Thomas County and the Red Hills area. Hollywood Plantation has similarities to the Birdwood Estate. Birdwood was built for William Cameron Forbes. It too was a relatively small estate; it originally sat on only 48 acres. (However, Forbes did purchase the 1,600+ acre Mayhaw Plantation in southern Thomas County for hunting and cattle raising.) Forbes ey came to Thomasville to practice and play polo in the winter. As a seasonal resident, Forbes had Birdwood's grounds designed with polo playing in mind, the estate had both regulation and playing fields. Birdwood was also constructed close to the city.

After the death of Mr. Devereux in 1932, there was a succession of other owners over the years, none of them owning the property for very long. In 1958, the size of the plantation was reduced to 38.310 acres. Much of the land was sold off at this time for subdivision development. The Pastime Stables land, on another parcel, associated with the Devereux family, was also subdivided for residential housing.

Site Description

Hollywood Plantation consists of a 38-acre tract with a 1928 Colonial Revival-style main house situated on a grassy hill overlooking the road. It is approached by a winding drive with dogwoods, hollies, and pines that showcase the house. The main house has a two-story central section with a pedimented central portico with four fluted Ionic columns. There are two flanking brick wings. The north one is two stories and originally housed servants on the second floor. The south wing is one story with a small pedimented portico entrance. The roof is slate. While the house is red brick, white Georgia marble was used for keystones, coping, steps, landings, quoins and trim. There are a porte cochere and a porch on the rear, both with Doric columns. The south wing has a billiard room and offices; the north wing contains the family room, family dining room, and kitchen. The first floor of the Georgian-type house is comprised of two rooms on either side of a central hall. There is a main staircase in the central hall leading to the second floor. The second floor consists of four bedrooms and a sitting room in the main block, and an additional bedroom, a playroom, and an exercise room in the north wing. Several rooms have built-in furniture. The first floor's main rooms contain the most details, including crown molding, wainscoting, and original mantels. The floors are original oak. Much of the original hardware also remains. Mantels are also found in most of the bedrooms. Bathrooms retain original tile floors. The seven outbuildings include: the c.1890 managers/jockey's house, wood frame, now part pool house, part three-bay garage; a c.1890 well house converted to a bath/dressing room; a 1960 small, concrete swimming pool; a 1920s frame garage with novelty siding and a hipped roof; an open wooden garage with knee braces and a metal roof, date unknown; a 1950s wood stable; and a board-and-batten caretaker's cottage built c.1920 and altered in the 1950s, now serving as a guesthouse. In 1997, the current owners rehabilitated the main house by removing walls from smaller servant's rooms to make larger rooms, creating a master suite upstairs, and converting the original master bedroom in the south wing to a billiard room.

Hollywood Plantation contains a red brick main house which is one of the many fine Colonial Revival-style plantation homes built by wealthy visitors and citizens in Thomasville. It is of a style that some people refer to as Jeffersonian Revival. The central portion of the house is a full two stories, it is flanked on either side by projecting wings. The central portion of the house is symmetrical and features a two-story pedimented portico with fluted Ionic columns. The north wing is two stories, but shorter than the central portion of the house (servants' rooms were originally located on the second floor of this wing). The south wing contains one story and features a small pedimented portico entrance. The roof is slate. The house is wood framed with brick veneer.

The main house of the estate is highly visible as it sits atop a rise overlooking the surrounding area. As you approach the property traveling east on Old Monticello Road the driveway is positioned diagonally at the corner of Old Monticello Road and Robin Hood Drive and winds up and around to the main building. The house sits directly across the street from the Glen Arven Country Club. The property also overlooks the later subdivision that was developed as parcels of the original property were sold off.

The house is situated on a grassy hill, overlooking the Old Monticello Road. A semicircular drive passes in front of the house. Landscaping around the house includes mature plantings of palms, live oaks, tall pines and numerous camellias. The driveway entrance is marked by two brick lattice "gates." The house is approached via a winding drive, which crests on a small hill. The paved driveway is lined with brick and has a brick gutter on one side. Large, original iron grates still provide drainage along the driveway. The drive is wooded with dogwoods, hollies, hardwoods and pines, and leads to a wide, open lawn that showcases the house. The yard is separated from the road with a brick and wood rail fence. The lattice "gates" and fence were designed and added in the 1950s by Mrs. Del Watkins. A hedge of pittasporum bushes is located on the house side of the fence.

he two-story portion has a large cornice with dentil molding; the gabled central portion in the rear has returns and a lunette vent. The front gable has an oval window. The porte-cochere on the back of the house blends in with the rear porch; both have fluted Doric columns or pilasters. The porch has a painted v-groove ceiling. The porch and landing on the back of the house have red, square tile floors. The porch off the kitchen (the northern end of the house) has square Doric columns and pilasters.

The red bricks are laid in Flemish bond with beige beaded mortar. Wood is used for the portico, doors, windows, and door and window surrounds. White Georgia marble, from the Georgia Marble Company in Tate, Georgia, was used for keystones, coping, steps, landings, sills, quoins and trim on the massive brick chimneys.

The six-over-one windows have wooden shutters with metal shutter dogs. The windows are various sizes. On the southern one-story wing, the windows are set in arched niches. There are two original brass and copper light fixtures on either side of the front door. The downspouts are also copper.

A wide entry hall runs the full width of the house. The double front doors are one-over-one paneled doors while the rear double doors are half glass. Both sets of doors have sidelights and a transom with fluted pilasters, paneled pilasters and a cornice with dentil molding. Most of the downstairs rooms have very high ceilings. The entry hall has four cased openings. The two nearest to the front door have cross and Bible pocket doors. One leads to the dining room and the other to a formal living room. The other two cased openings do not have doors. The opening on the left leads to the stairway and service wing. This main staircase has a landing and turned, painted balusters and a painted handrail. The other opening is narrower and leads to a narrow hallway flanked by smaller family-type rooms, including a billiard room, powder room, an elaborate bar and a pine-paneled study.

The family dining area wing has a bay window added around 1958. This wing includes a family room created by removing some walls that had enclosed service rooms. There is also a separate laundry room. A half-glass door leads to a small exterior porch (ca. 1958). A small service staircase leads upstairs to the former servant's bedrooms. The servant's rooms have oak floors without many quarter-sawn boards. Two rooms were opened up into a play area; two were combined to make an exercise room, two were combined into a guest bedroom and one room was retained at its original size (about 6' x 10'). A half-glass door leads to a deck over the kitchen porch. There are modern vents for the HVAC in this section. A door off the servants' hall leads to a bath and a small flight of stairs and a door ending the servants' portion of the house.

The upstairs of the main block of the house contains the main bedrooms and sitting areas. There is a large open sitting area with elaborate door and window surrounds and built-in shelving with glass doors. A door leads to a small balcony on the front of the house, which has a wrought iron railing. The openings in this room are cased like the downstairs hallway. The bedrooms are large and dressed up with crown molding, baseboards, door and window surrounds, but these elements are less elaborate than downstairs. The bedrooms contain built-in furniture with cupboards and drawers and wood Neoclassical mantels with the openings framed in marble. The master suite has been reworked with a new large bathroom and a closet with numerous cupboards.

Most of the walls and ceilings are plaster or Sheetrock. Painted wood trim is found throughout the house. The floors throughout the house are three-inch oak strips (except for the kitchen and bathrooms). In the public areas, the oak flooring has a high quarter-sawn content. Most of the bathrooms retain only their original tile floors; they have new tile wainscoting and fixtures. The tile wainscoting and toilet are original in the powder room, and the current owners used two of the original pedestal sinks in the master bath.

The kitchen has been modernized with a new "butler's pantry" in the hallway. A door off this hall leads to the formal dining room. This area has a lower ceiling, covered in painted v-groove board and a stone-tile floor.

The entry hall has wood-paneled wainscoting with a chair rail. There is also a chair rail in the dining room. The cornices in the public rooms are very large, and still quite substantial throughout the rest of the house. Most of the doors on the interior of the house are cross and Bible wood doors. The door and window surrounds and baseboards are substantial and elaborate.

Most of the walls are papered, while some are painted with faux finishes. Most of the hardware is brass or nickel-plated, and much of it still remains, including doorknobs, escutcheons, hinges, and pulls for the pocket doors. The light fixtures are all new, but are skillfully selected reproductions.

The original metal wall vents for heating are located throughout the house. They have been supplemented with baseboard vents.

Every public room, and most of the bedrooms, has elaborately carved Neoclassical mantels. The mantels are all different, and have motifs that include urns, fluted pilasters and swags of laurel leaves.

Changes to the main house have included the following. In 1958 the back porch was added, the bay window was added to front facade, and the kitchen and master bath were remodeled. In the 1970's the house was divided into four living units, two upstairs and two downstairs with kitchens in each section. The service stair was closed off. Around 1983 all the bathrooms except the powder room downstairs were remodeled; this included the demolition of most of the original tile work. Solar panels were added and the sauna was installed in the bath/dressing room. In 1997 a restoration undertaken by the Sheas. The original master bedroom was converted into a billiard room. The original master bath is now an office/gun room. The kitchen wing that was originally the service area on both the first and second stories was altered to create more open space. The small servant bedrooms, bathrooms and dining room were removed to form a family room, family dining room, and playroom, all on the second floor. On the second floor, a wall was removed to create the master suite. One small bedroom became a walk-in closet and two baths were combined to form one large bathroom. The remainder of the house was restored to its original configuration. Luckily, some original materials, as well as the front doors and wrought iron balcony, were found in the stable and re-installed.

There are several outbuildings or structures, on the property and they are all keyed into the site plan. The former jockey house (B), or Manager's House, circa 1890, is wood frame with weatherboard siding. The front of the building now functions as the pool house. The porch has four square Doric columns and the porch floor is red brick set in a herringbone pattern. A cupola sits on top of an asphalt shingled hipped roof. Three sets of French doors lead into the interior. The interior was altered in the 1958. This portion includes a sitting room and a small kitchen. It has v-groove pine paneling and pine floors. A bay window has also been added. The rear of the building was converted into a three-bay garage. It appears to have originally been arranged with small rooms for the jockeys, but is now one open space. It has a cement floor, wood and glass garage doors and two-over-two windows. The interior walls and ceilings are covered with beaded board. Seams where walls may have been located are covered with boards. It is most likely the jockey house had at least one chimney and fireplace that were removed during the 1958 alteration.

The bath/dressing room building (C) is a small painted brick building with two pairs of French doors and a hipped asphalt shingle roof. Originally, this building was the well house, ca. 1890. The interior is divided into two changing and bathing areas. The ladies' bathroom has a tile floor, pink fixtures and a pink-tiled shower stall. The walls are covered with pine (probably ca. 1990). The men's bathroom has wood strip flooring set over the tile floor. It has blue fixtures and a blue-tiled shower stall. The walls are also pine and the sauna was probably added in the 1990s.

A small concrete swimming pool (D), encircled by a brick and iron fence, was built in 1960. The deck was resurfaced with flagstone edged in red brick in 1997.

A second garage (E) was built in the 1920s. It was said to contain an apartment for the chauffeur. It has novelty siding and a hipped roof. It has three sets of garage doors, which swing open, and six-over-six double-hung sash windows. The interior has an open ceiling; the walls are covered with beaded board.

There is also an open wooden garage (F) with knee braces and a corrugated metal roof; date unknown.

During their ownership, the Watkins family added another stable (G) to the property in the late 1950's. It is built of v-groove board and novelty siding with an asphalt shingle roof and small cupola. It has a brick foundation/underpinning.

The board-and-batten "Caretaker's Cottage" (H) was probably built circa 1920. It has been greatly altered, probably in the 1950s, and now serves as a guesthouse. The hipped roof is covered with asphalt shingles. Most of the window sashes have been replaced with single panes of fixed glass. Originally set on brick piers, later underpinning was done with brick. On the interior, floors are covered with carpet and parquet flooring. Original mantels remain in the bedrooms.

Next to the "Caretaker's Cottage" is a well with a cover (I), that probably dates from the 1920s as well.