1859 Mansion Survived the Civil War Untouched!

Welcome to Macon, Georgia. Preservation Travels with Lane and Kevin here at our Restoration Nation. We've driven 10 hours to bring you one of the finest examples of Victorian Italian Renaissance architecture in the United States, and we are so happy to be doing this along with our partners in preservation, our allies and friends, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. So, come on in and join us. Macon, Georgia, possesses an extraordinary collection of historic architecture, in part because the city escaped much of the widespread destruction that breached other Georgia communities during the American Civil War. Even among that remarkable collection, Hay House stands apart. The house was built between 1855 and 1859 for William Butler Johnston and his wife Anne It's now known as the Hay House because the Hay family, its final private owners, gave the house and its contents to the Georgia Trust in 1977. William Butler Johnston was born in 1809 in Eatonton, about 45 miles north of Macon. By 16, he'd secured an apprenticeship in New York City, where he learned the relatively new and highly specialized art of watchmaking. He returned to about 1825 and opened a jewelry store with his brother. Johnston quickly developed a reputation as one of the finest watchmakers between New Orleans and Charleston, then two of the great centers of southern commerce and culture. His craftsmanship made him successful. His investments made him one of the wealthiest men in the South. By 40, Johnston was retired, wealthy, and still unmarried. One year later, he married Anne Tracy, who was 20 years his junior. Following a grand ceremony at Christ Episcopal Church, the couple embarked upon an extraordinary three-and-a-half year honeymoon through Europe. They returned with furniture, artwork, decorative objects, and an entirely new vision of the kind of house they wanted to build in Macon. In New York, Johnston engaged the prominent architectural firm of T. Thomas and Son. The firm was already designing fashionable residences in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, but Hay House would become its first major commission in the South. The Johnstons lived there through the Civil War. William died in 1888 and Anne followed in 1896. Their daughter, Mary Ellen, inherited the home. She and her husband, Judge William Felton, made significant changes while living there and remained until their deaths in 1926. Their son chose not to assume responsibility for the enormous property, so the house was sold to P.L. Hay for just over $60,000. Hay was another self-made businessman, having founded Bankers Health and Life Insurance. He and his wife, Maude, moved into the house in 1927. The Hays remained in the home for the rest of their lives. P.L. Hay died in 1956 and Maude in 1962. Today, the interpretation of the home does something unusual. Rather than presenting a single moment frozen in time, its rooms tell the story of all three families and more than a century of life lived within these walls. The first interior space immediately establishes the scale and ambition of the home. The entrance door is six inches thick. Above the stairway are two enormous caribou, trophies brought home by Judge Felton following a hunting trip to Canada. But the true masterpiece of the Walnut Hall is on its walls. Nearly every surface that appears to be marble is actually trompe l'oeil painting. The decorative artists used paint to imitate the depth, color, and veining of expensive stone. This was the Hall's original treatment, but decades of coal smoke, cigar smoke, and daily life left its dirty and dark mark. In 1912, Mary Ellen Felton coated the walls with varnish and later painted over them. More paint followed during the Hay period. By the time the Georgia Trust acquired the property, five layers concealed the original decorative work, and no one realized what remained underneath. When conservators began restoring the Hall, they discovered that the old varnish had unintentionally protected the trompe l'oeil painting. After carefully removing later coatings, they found that approximately 95% of the original survived. Only a very small portion required reconstruction. The trompe l'oeil continues into the Marble Hall, where almost everything that looks like stone is another exercise in painted illusion. Symmetry was fundamental to Italian Renaissance design, and the architects were willing to employ a little deception to maintain it. One apparent doorway is not a doorway at all. It was created to balance the real opening opposite it and to preserve the strict geometry of the room. The fall store also conceals the space needed to receive one of the house's enormous sliding doors. The decorative work is attributed to Swiss artist Auguste Troupeau, who was brought to Macon by the architects. His painted marble is joined by elaborate plasterwork and gilding across the ceiling. The effect makes clear that economy was not the guiding principle in the decoration of this house. The surviving hardware is equally remarkable. The original skeleton key still operates the lock and the door retains its silver plated fittings and massive hinges. The transition into the dining room is made through a pair of curved pocket doors. Hay House contains 10 sets of pocket doors, but only two sets follow a curve, making them especially unusual. The Eastlake tables and chairs were purchased by the Johnston family in the 1880s, and they remained through the Felton period, and when the Hays purchased the home, they purchased the dining room furniture as well. The ensemble has effectively occupied this room for nearly a century and a half. Overhead is the original gasoleer. While porcelain objects acquired in Paris in 1553 connect the room directly to the Johnston's European travels. The carved woodwork was produced by a New York cabinetmaker specifically for the house. By the time the Georgia Trust began its restoration, years of coal and cigar smoke had almost obscured the ceiling decoration. Another important discovery waited underfoot. In 1912, Mary Ellen Felton installed display cabinets in two corners of the room. When those later cabinets were removed, conservators found a protected fragment of the original floor treatment beneath. It was not carpet, as restoration planners had expected, but a painted sailcloth. That small surviving fragment provided the evidence needed to reproduce the floor covering. One later feature was deliberately retained. The Feltons installed the stained glass windows known as the Four Seasons of the Vineyard. It belongs to a later chapter of the house, but it's become an essential part of the room's identity. With two fireplaces and enough space for large gatherings, this room is known as the double parlor. Its present furnishings largely represent the Hay Period. Maude Hay favored French-style furniture and porcelain, and she added the chandeliers in 1929. Among this room's treasures is a painting attributed to Angelika Kaufmann, one of the earliest women to achieve international recognition as a professional artist. For the Hays, this was a formal living room. The Johnstons and Feltons used the same space as a ballroom. All three families were enthusiastic entertainers, and when the room was cleared for dancing, musicians could perform from the alcove. The room also preserves a surprisingly personal political statement. As the house neared completion in 1859, the country was approaching the American Civil War. William Butler Johnston had spent part of his youth in New York and strongly opposed secession. When guests first entered his house, they could look above the parlor arch and see the crest of the United States. In an increasingly divided South, its placement was neither accidental nor subtle. The adjoining music room contains a feature from all three periods of family ownership. Its Baccarat chandeliers were added by Maude Hay in 1929, while the Italian marble fireplace and many of the architectural details belong to the original design. High above the room are clear story windows that form part of the house's sophisticated ventilation system. A servant could reach them from the roof and open them, allowing hot air to rise and escape. The Johnstons and later the Feltons used this room as an art gallery. It was designed to display the paintings, sculpture, and decorative objects the Johnstons had collected during their years in Europe. Even in a house filled with technological ingenuity, this room demonstrates that comfort and engineering were never allowed to diminish beauty. Just beyond the music room is a small space designed around a single work of art. The marble sculpture is titled Ruth Gleaning and depicts the biblical figure of Ruth. The Johnstons commissioned the sculpture during their European honeymoon in 1854 from an American artist working in Italy. It arrived at the Hay House in 1859. Remarkably, architect T. Thomas designed this room specifically to receive the sculpture, even though he had never seen the completed work. It is believed to be the earliest documented American interior design expressly to house one individual piece of art. Mary Ellen Felton moved Ruth into the music room in 1912 and converted this space into a silver closet. The statue remained outside its intended setting for approximately 90 years. Following the restoration of the room, Ruth was returned to the location conceived for her in the 1850s. Nearby, curved shutters disappear completely into the wall and the great sliding door that passes through the marble hall vanishes into a concealed pocket. These details reveal just how carefully the rooms were designed to work together. Halfway up the staircase is one of the house's most beautiful features, a stained glass window depicting Lord Byron. Anne Tracy Johnston was exceptionally well-educated for a woman of her era and had a particular love of poetry. Byron's work was enormously popular during the period, especially in Europe. In 2017, a freak windstorm struck Macon and blew much of the window into the house. Visitors were inside at the time, but remarkably no one was injured. Glass fell across the staircase and into the walnut hall, and guests helped gather the broken fragments. Those fragments became part of the window's conservation. Original pieces were returned whenever possible, while new material was introduced only where loss made it necessary. The repaired window now carries visible evidence of both the storm and the work prior to save it. At the stair landing is another example of the architect's fondness for illusion. A concealed door opens into what is commonly called the hidden room. Despite the mystery suggested by its name, it's actually just a linen closet. Two porcelain pieces purchased by the Johnstons occupied this landing since the house was completed. They remained in place even as the surrounding rooms changed color and character over the generations. The third level contains the principal bedrooms. In 1912, Mary Ellen and Judge Felton transformed this hall with hardwood flooring and three built-in cabinets fitted with beveled mirrors. During restoration, the later cabinets were removed and portions of the original painted floor were discovered beneath them. That evidence allowed decorative painter Chris Mills to recreate the earlier pattern across the hall. Paint analysis also revealed three original shades beneath many later coatings. The restored walls and trim now reflect their appearance around 1860 during the Johnston period. The treatment is surprisingly restrained with plain wall surfaces and very little gilding. For all its grandeur, Hay House was also remarkably practical. It originally contained three indoor bathrooms supplied with both hot and cold running water, an exceptional level of domestic technology in the 1850s. The principal bedroom is interpreted entirely to the Hay period. When the Hay family gave the property to the Georgia Trust in 1977, one of their few requirements was that this room remain exactly as their parents had known it. The furnishings and personal objects preserve the atmosphere of Maud and P.L. Hay's private space rather than returning it to an earlier period. One of the most memorable objects is a 1948 Mathis cooler. The vintage fan was found in the house, restored to operation, and still moves an astonishing amount of air. In a climate like Macon's, that would have been no small luxury. The northeast bedchamber is known as Mary Ellen's room because she occupied it for much of her life. Unlike the Hay bedroom, this room has been interpreted to the Felton period. The bed and from a local donor whose mother had owned them. They're not original to the house, but they help recreate the scale and character of late 19th and early 20th century bedrooms. The Feltons also added bathrooms to this room and to the bedchamber across the hall. Each featured a sink positioned outside the enclosed bathroom. During the Hay period, a large chifforobe concealed the sink in Mary Ellen's room. When the decision was made to return the room to its earlier appearance, the cabinet was removed. Fortunately, the original sink had never left the house, allowing it to be reinstalled in its proper location. Across the hall, a nearly identical bedroom remains unrestored. The contrast is valuable because it allows us to see both the results of conservation and the condition from which that work begins. The Felton era sink in this room was never removed. It remains where it was installed in 1912, preserving a quiet but important piece of the family's modernization of the home. For much of the property's history, another room on this floor served as a children's bedroom. A smaller stair leads upward to what was known as the nanny's room. The upper room may also have served at some point as a sewing space, but it is associated most closely with Laura Johnston, nanny to the Felton children. Its great window frames a view that has changed surprisingly little since the early 20th century. The lowest level of Hay House was the working heart of the property. The present gift shop occupies the former scullery, where food and equipment would have been washed and prepared before entering the kitchen. An indoor kitchen was highly unusual when the house was built. The room retains its original floors and massive work tables, which have stood here since 1859. The restored walls continue the house's tradition of trompe-l'oeil decoration. The basement also provides summer living quarters. Making heat can be brutal, and these rooms offered the first two families a cooler alternative to the upper floors. One chamber served as a summer living room and is now used to interpret objects from the Johnston, Felton, and Hay periods. The house's ventilation system was extraordinarily sophisticated for the time. A movable panel opens a grate connected with a vertical air passage. Cooler air entered at the lower level, while warm air rose through the house and escaped near the copula. Behind one great door is the wind tunnel, which also functioned as a service entrance. Beyond it lies the wine cellar, one of the coolest spaces in the building. It stored wine, perishable foods, and even young plants being started for the garden. The larder demonstrates an equally practical understanding of food storage. Everything was raised above the floor to make it more difficult for insects and rodents to reach. As food became increasingly precious during the American Civil War, bars were installed across these windows. They're the only barred windows in the house. Access to the larder was tightly controlled, and Tracy Johnston kept the key, although it may have occasionally been entrusted to the head housekeeper or cook. The summer dining room and summer bedroom completed the family's warm weather living quarters. The bedroom later became office space, but the surviving rooms still allow us to understand how this enormous household adjusted to the realities of the southern climate. Hay House is extraordinary because its beauty is inseparable from its ingenuity. Painted illusion, imported art, hidden doors, indoor plumbing, and early ventilation systems all survive within a house that continued to evolve through three generations of ownership. It's not simply a monument to wealth. It's a record of how families lived, entertained, adapted, modernized, and left their mark on one remarkable building. Hay House is open for tours Wednesday through Sunday, with tours offered on the hour. To plan your trip, go to HayHouseMegan.org. Our thanks again to the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation and everyone at Hay House for allowing us to share this extraordinary piece of property and piece of history with you.