Construction on this iconic house began in 1798. The I-House (Plantation Plain) with rear kitchen seen today is a later antebellum expansion of a pioneer log cabin. The kitchen and dining room (right) are later additions, as well.The loss of houses like this is the loss not just of architecture but of the memories of the men who built them and those who went about their lives in them. These places are our monuments. They define us, for better and worse.
In its listing of the property, presently for sale, The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation notes: “The cabin, originally a 425 square foot structure built over a basement, was expanded over the years and is now an approximately 2,500 sqft nine-room house with three bedrooms and one bathroom. The house’s porch retains decorative carved brackets, and historic interior elements include wide pine board floors, chair rails, wainscoting, hand planed board walls, horsehair plaster, and Federal period mantels.”
Lexington Historic District, National Register of Historic Places