Ware House (1107 Oglethorpe Street)
UPDATE: Historic Macon purchased the Ware House and will rehabilitate as part of its neighborhood revitalization efforts in Beall’s Hill.
Thomas Jefferson Ware built the house at 1107 Oglethorpe Street, which still sits on a prominent corner of the Beall’s Hill neighborhood, around 1880. Ware was a city alderman and eventually commissioner of public works, as well as owning a local grocery store just blocks away from his house. Playing a prominent role in Macon’s political and social life, Ware lived in this house until 1917, when he moved to Atlanta. Upon his death two years later, his son-in-law Benjamin F. Sutton bought out Ware’s other descendants to own the house outright, though it was Sylvanus Prince, another of Ware’s son-in-laws, who actually called this place home.
Although the building has had many residents, it has had relatively few owners. The house was rented out starting in the 1920s to many different people, before becoming a formal boarding house in 1940. In 1942, the Macon City Directory lists 34 adults as residents at this address with the proprietor Mrs. Maude Moat. In the late 1940s, the house became a single family home again, though the rear building was still rented to different people at various times. In 1965, the current owners purchased the home and raised their family there. Between 1968 and 1976, the building served as the Oglethorpe Nursery School, and since 1992, the structure has claimed multiple residents.
1107 Oglethorpe Street stands out in the Beall’s Hill neighborhood, not just because of its prominent location or larger size but also for its Queen Anne style architecture with free classic details. The house has a classically Victorian irregular shape, with steeply pitched gables featuring diamond-shaped louvered vents. Beneath the eaves, the structure still retains elaborate decorative braces and dentils, details that are characteristic of its style and subtype. Everything from the warp-around porch to the original double-hung sash windows still present remind those who gaze upon this property today that the family who built this house did so with care and great pride in their city. Historic Macon Foundation continues to work in Beall’s Hill and looks forward to working with the owners of the Ware House to rehabilitate the house to its former glory.
UPDATE: Historic Macon purchased the Ware House in late 2015 and will rehabilitate as part of the organization’s neighborhood revitalization work in Beall’s Hill.
Source: Historic Macon Foundation • 935 High St. Macon, GA 31201 • 478-742-5084, on-line
Note: The house is currently for sale to be used as a single family residence, by the Historic Macon Foundation. It has not been occupied for over 10 years and will need a lot of love and dedication. As you can see by the previous description of ownership the house has historical value to the community of Macon, Georgia.
Source: Rhonda Steedman’s Family History Page
I was 5 yrs old when I went to the Nursery here in 1968. I was supposed to go to the classroom in the right front classrm but refused to leave my infant sister alone, in the Bay window room on the left. I would sleep in the crib with her. We were allowed to play in the garden to the left of the house. The staircase as you walked in the front door was mesmerizing to a child. But we weren’t allowed on them, only the management. All I wanted to do was climb those stairs and play on them. I have sweet memories of tht time.