|
Built of kiln-dried bricks made in the Baugh brickyards located in Mineral Bluff, with much of the clay for the bricks dug from the back yard of the Blue Ridge Baugh lots, the structure was designed in the modified Federal style of architecture. The walls, four-bricks thick, were constructed solidly and have withstood time and the elements. The house has two stories, with two main rooms on each floor, and was originally heated upstairs and down with fireplaces north and south. An attached kitchen extends eastward on the north end of the house, and an L-shaped porch joins the kitchen wing with the parlor wing. The residents of the new Baugh house in Blue Ridge had this lineage. James Walden Baugh, born October 17, 1862 in Mineral Bluff was the son of John Baugh and Catherine Cole Baugh. John Baugh served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Mary Theresa Geisler Baugh's parents were Andrew and Mary Theresa Amhof Geisler of Ducktown, Tennessee Her father was a master rock mason. John Baugh was a brickmason, master builder and brick maker. His kiln in Mineral Bluff fashioned the bricks to erect the Mineral Bluff depot the bank, the Hampton building, the Harness building, the theater, and Mineral Bluff Baptist Church, as well as the John Baugh house in Mineral Bluff, built in 1887. Several buildings in Blue Ridge were likewise constructed from Baugh bricks and with the Baugh's construction expertise. James and Mary Theresa Baugh moved into their new house in Blue Ridge in 1890 with their new baby, Nona, who had been born in Ducktown, Tennessee. Four other children were born to them in Blue Ridge: Ernest in 1895, Eva Mae in 1897, Elsie Theresa in 1899, and James Lewelyn in 1911. A garden patch behind their Blue Ridge residence provided vegetables for the Baugh table. Other foodstuffs were grown on the Baugh farm in Mineral Bluff. A cool cellar beneath the house provide a place for storing the food canned and preserved for winter use. The house was a popular gathering place for relatives and visitors. In 1924, son James, age 13, became quite ill. His parents sent an urgent call to Mary Baugh's brother, Dr. Francis Geisler of Turtletown and he diagnosed acute appendicitis. He summoned Dr. Fred Kimsey of Ducktown, and together they performed an emergency operation in the kitchen of the house. James recovered, thanks to the expertise of the doctors and the faithful ministrations of Nurse Stanfield who attended James for several weeks following surgery. The last Baugh descendant to live in the house was Miss Eva Mae Baugh (who never married). On November 25, 1987, the City of Blue Ridge (Taylor Stanley, Mayor) purchased the James Walden Baugh house. The responsibility of establishing the house as a museum was assigned to the Fannin County Heritage Foundation, Inc. Plans were formulated for restoring the house. Repair work began immediately, but it was not until September 1991 that a comprehensive plan for its restoration was drawn up by Ed Howard, president of Builders Association, assisted by Dale Dyer and Cheryl Fowler-Day. A comprehensive Baugh House Museum Development Plan was published in 1992 prepared for the Historical Foundation by Historic Preservation Services of Macon, Georgia. Grants of $6,000 from the Levi Strauss & Co. LEAP awards and $5,000 from the Department of Natural Resources, Historic Preservation Section, boosted the work, together with much "in-kind" volunteer labor. Many have done volunteer work on the restoration, with the City of Blue Ridge Council and Mayor Robert Green offering help from offenders who were required to work community service hours for their penalty. Much credit for the restoration is due to the volunteer efforts of Elizabeth Abernathy Simonds who served as chairman of the Baugh House restoration and Lewis Simonds who was general overseer of the work. In the textile rooms, second floor, is a loom more than 150 years old originally used by the Hunt family, early settlers in the county. A loom of about 1930s vintage is on loan from the Fannin County Homemakers Council. A handmade quilting frame is typical of those used in pioneer homes in the mountains. In 1996, a designated gift from their children to the Heritage Foundation honored Dr. Herbert M. Olnick and Praise Long Olnick. The first floor north room is the Olnick Genealogy Room. The James Baugh house is a testament to a once thriving business, the Baugh brickyards, and the attention to detail and solid construction of a late nineteenth century dwelling, a museum house monument to pride in work.
|