Millpond Plantation, Thomasville Georgia

Date added: November 22, 2023 Categories: Georgia House Plantations & Farms

It was the home of two of Thomas County's pioneer families and of some of the nation's leading financiers, industrialists, and philanthropists. Its architecture represents a style unique to the area. The landscaping was done by a leading landscape architect of the period, and the buildings were designed by a noted architectural firm. Its 20th-century owners were leaders in the arts, industry, economics, and social service enterprises in the United States. The plantation itself has been a center for agriculture, conservation of natural resources and wildlife preservation.

Millpond Plantation, near Thomasville, Georgia, originated circa 1825, just as Thomas County was being settled following the Land Lottery of 1820. On February 21^st, 1825, Thomas Clark Wyche (1801-1870) purchased the first Millpond lot #51 of 490 acres in the 13^th District for $250 from Bryan Hardy. On this land, he settled his family, including his wife, Catherine McIntyre Wyche (1809-1861), his parents, Littleton and Susannah Wyche, and 10 younger brothers and sisters plus six slaves. He bought additional land in the next years but his first lot proved of greatest value. Lot 51 was the site of his home and the "millpond" where he, and later his son-in-law, John Lanier Linton, operated their grist mill. By 1860, Wyche owned about 1600 acres, 400 improved and 1200 unimproved, valued at $5000. He raised cotton, corn, livestock, sheep and swine. The youngest child of Thomas and Catherine Wyche, Alice M. (1840-1893), married John Lanier Linton (1836-1908). Linton served in the Civil War and returned to Thomas County and began buying property there. Alice Wyche Linton had inherited Millpond upon her father's death in 1870 so Alice and John Linton purchased several adjoining land lots and by 1885, Millpond consisted of over 3000 acres. It was then farmed by tenant farmers or sharecroppers. The Lintons owned extensive property in other parts of the county and in the city of Thomasville. In 1888, John Linton built a large, two-story residence on Broad Street near the courthouse. Linton also owned part of the Young Hotel and the livery stable. In 1890, Alice Linton died and her portion of Millpond passed to her children and was divided equally among these heirs in 1891 with mill and pond privileges to be shared.

The turn of the century brought a new era to Millpond. In the years since 1875, Thomas County had gained a reputation as a winter resort. The mild climate was said to be good for one's health and an abundance of wildlife, especially quail, provided sport for hunters. These attractions drew winter residents from New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia and other cold northern cities; men such as Oliver H. Payne of Standard Oil, Justus Strawbridge of Philadelphia's Strawbridge and Clothier, Mark Hanna, Cleveland financier and politician, New Yorker John W. Masury of the Masury Paint Co.; and the list goes on. Then, in 1903, came Jeptha Homer Wade.

Mr. J. H. Wade was a wealthy Cleveland financier and philanthropist. He was the grandson of another Jeptha H. Wade (1811-1890), the first president of Western Union Telegraph Company. Mr. Wade was born in Cleveland on October 15th, 1857, the son of Randall P. and Anna McGaw Wade. In 1880, he married Ellen Garrettson of Cleveland and they subsequently had three children, Jeptha H., Jr., George Garrettson and Helen. Mr. Wade's numerous business ventures included: owner and president of Wade Realty Company, president of Montreal Mining Company, and director of the Union Trust Company, Guardian Trust Company, Grasselli Chemical Company, Sandusky Cement Company, Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company, National Refining Company, Baker R and L Company, and the Cleveland Stone Company. His philanthropic endeavors were directed toward the Wade Benevolent Fund, the Community Fund, Lakeside Hospital, the Cleveland Protestant Orphanage, the Western Reserve Historical Society, the Museum of Natural History, local schools, the Cleveland Museum of Art (of which he was president), and countless other organizations. He donated a large and valuable collection of paintings, sculpture and other art objects to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Jeptha H. Wade was said to be Cleveland's greatest benefactor. He also made contributions to the Thomas County area during his residency there.

Jeptha Wade increased his Thomas County land holdings to upwards of 10,000 acres and built his massive Spanish Revival-style home on Millpond. Since landscaping was a hobby, Mr. Wade took an active part in developing the grounds. He increased the size of the millpond and leveled a hill beside the house in order to view the pond from the main house. He ordered the planting of separate gardens for roses, palms, poppies, dogwoods, crabapples, lilies and tropical ferns and shrubs. The gardens were kept and nurtured from 1915 to 1955 by the superintendent, Alfred F. Wilkinson, who had been trained in the gardens of England. Millpond, upon its completion, was declared by editors and plantation owners to be a superior showplace of the South. After 23 winters at Millpond, Jeptha Homer Wade died at Millpond on March 6th, 1926. His passing was much lamented in Cleveland and Thomasville and newspapers of the day carried lavish accounts of his many accomplishments and contributions.

In 1926, Millpond was placed in trust and its use was given to Jeptha Wade's children Jeptha Jr., Helen (Mrs. Edward B. Greene) and George Garrettson (1882-1957), all of Cleveland, for their lifetimes. The new owners continued to maintain Millpond until the 1950's. That they retained the traditional beauty of the house and gardens is evidenced by a glowing account of Millpond's gardens in a 1948 article by the Atlanta Journal and Constitution Magazine.

Mr. Jeptha H. Wade, Jr. was a director of the Union Trust Company. Mr. George G. Wade was President of Wade Realty Company and a director of the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company; the Medusa Portland Cement Company; the Montreal Mining Company; the Cleveland Quarries Company; Columbia Transportation Company; Pringle Barge Line; Toledo, Angola and Western Railway and the Wyoming Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company. Mr. G. G. Wade died in 1957. In 1959, with George, Jeptha and Helen Wade all deceased, Millpond had to be sold, according to the terms of the trust which had been set up by the first Wade of Millpond. The children of George Wade and Helen Wade Greene then purchased Millpond from the trust in 1961. The new owners were Jeptha H. Wade III, Irene Wade (Mrs. Ellery Sedgwick, Jr.), both children of George Wade, and Helen Greene (Mrs. A. Dean Perry), daughter of Helen Wade Greene. The plantation is still in their possession today. Millpond was at that time divided into three tracts. The center portion with the main house and outbuildings is owned by Mrs. Perry. The land east of Millpond Road belongs to Mrs. Sedgwick and the land west of the new Metcalf Road belongs to Mr. Wade. However, the three owners share in the use of the main house as they are all frequent winter visitors to Thomas County just as their grandfather had been 70 years ago.

Jeptha H. Wade III was born in 1924 and is married to Emily Vanderbilt. Mr. Wade is an attorney with Choate, Hall and Stewart of Boston, where they reside, and a director of the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company. Irene Wade Sedgwick is married to a former president of the Mudusa Company and Helen Greene Perry is married to an investment banker. The Sedgwicks and the Perrys reside in the Cleveland area.

Millpond has grown from a 490-acre land lot to a 1600 and then a 3000-acre plantation to a 10,000-acre estate. While the 20^th century has brought architectural changes and modernization to Millpond, many of its original natural features remain as vestiges of the past. The old red clay Linton Mill Road, now known as Millpond Road, still winds through the eastern portion. The mill is gone but the pond remains. Pine trees and wildlife are still abundant and the southern area boasts a stand of virgin long-leaf pine, one of few in the United States. Agriculture was the basis of Millpond's existence in the first 75 years and has continued to be important. Millpond agriculture operated successfully first under the slave system and then under the sharecropping system. Other enterprises including forestry, milling and hunting have also been significant and most of these enterprises have made Millpond a self-supporting venture from its beginning. It is one of the rare examples in Georgia of an antebellum plantation that not only survived the dissolution of the slavery system and the ravages of war but has continued to grow and prosper to the present time, while maintaining its natural and historical integrity.

Site Description

Millpond Plantation is one of Thomas County's most unusual estates. The buildings are in the Spanish stucco revival style and were designed by Hubbell and Benes, a prestigious Cleveland, Ohio firm that designed the Cleveland Museum of Art. The landscaping, greatly influenced by the owner's interest in nature, was designed by Warren Manning, noted Boston landscape architect and designer of the Biltmore Estate gardens at Ashville, NC, and the Jamestown Exposition. Construction for the main house was begun in 1903 and completed in 1905. By 1910, the entire complex was complete.

Millpond's main house is a sprawling Spanish Revival-style mansion, measuring 130 feet by 140 feet. The entrance faces south with the main access road to the rear or north. The house is constructed of brick with trim and foundation of granite, but the brick is stuccoed completely. The house is built around a 100-square-foot courtyard and all of the first-floor rooms open onto this court. The courtyard is covered by a steel and glass canopy which can be removed. Lush plants fill the courtyard and the canopy enables the courtyard to act as a greenhouse so that plants will flourish year-round. A tunnel runs under the house, connecting the courtyard with the grounds to allow gardeners to enter and leave unnoticed. The center section of the front and rear facades have a second story level and these areas have been used as servant's quarters. The living room extends almost the entire length of the east side of the house and features an immense window overlooking a garden, meadow, and millpond. Originally, a hill had restricted the view of the pond, but the first owner, J. H. Wade, had the hill leveled to provide the view. A hall connecting the first-floor rooms to the courtyard parallels the courtyard on every side and features typically Spanish arches along the courtyard. The roof is arched tile, characteristic of the Spanish Revival style structures.

The estate property has numerous gardens and outbuildings. Gardens flank the house on 3 sides with a Spanish Revival-style garage nearby. Across the road from the rear of the main house are several employee dwellings also of stuccoed brick but of simpler design. A large shingled water tower rises above the other outbuildings. Most of the buildings in the complex, including the main house, are now covered with vines. The architecture of the complex, the lush growth and the moss-draped trees give one the impression of an old Spanish fort.

The plantation complex is well off of the county roads that border the property. The complex can be reached by two tree-lined, dirt plantation roads that wind along for almost a mile from the Old Metcalf Road and from Pine Tree Boulevard. Gatehouses stand at both entrances. The two roads meet at the rear of the main house and continue on to the millpond, east of the house. The Wyche-Linton cemetery still remains to the south of the complex, a reminder of the early days of Millpond before the present buildings were constructed.

The Plantation consisted of about 3000 acres when owned by Mr. J. H. Wade at time the house and outbuildings were built. However, more than half of the original Wade property was sold in the 1950s for residential development including tracts north of Pine Tree Boulevard, west of Old Metcalf Road and northeast of Millpond Road. The additional 8800 acres that today comprises Millpond was acquired by Mr. Wade and his heirs after the plantation complex was completed.