Alexander Robert Lawton built this as a summer home (Seventh Heaven) between 1884-1885 and his boosterism helped make Mt. Airy a popular resort area. Lawton was a Confederate general and attorney who later served as president of the Augusta & Savannah Railroad. Upon General Lawton’s death in 1898, the family’s holdings in Mt. Airy were sold and the house came into the possession of Caroline Thompson, who owned it until 1911. Mrs. Gene Keen-Knight of Vicksburg, Mississippi, apparently didn’t live in the house but maintained it as a rental property. It was during her ownership that baseball Ty Cobb lived here. He was having a house built on a large piece of property nearby and called the Lawton place home for a few years, in the 1950s. After Mrs. Keen-Knight’s death the house was sold yet again and several owners have followed. Most recently, it served as an event space known as Lawton Place Manor.
National Register of Historic Places