About this property
Georgia Cottage, also known as the Augusta Evans Wilson House, is a historic residence in Mobile, Alabama, United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 14, 1972, based on its association with Augusta Jane Evans. She was one of the most popular American novelists of the nineteenth century and the first female author in the United States to earn over $100,000 for her work, but has been largely forgotten in recent times. Colonel John Murrell of Georgia had the Greek Revival style house built in 1840 for his daughter, Mrs. William A. Hardaway. It was then sold in 1855 to Alfred Batre, nephew of Adolphe Batre, Mobile Mayor (1830), who purchased it for his new bride Hortense Addison, daughter of Lloyd Dulany Addison of the Oxon Hill Manor Addison's. Augusta Jane Evans purchased the house from Batre in 1857 for her father, Matthew R. Evans, with the proceeds from her first book, Inez: A Tale of the Alamo. Matthew Evans had relocated his family to Mobile from San Antonio, Texas, in 1849. The Batres would move into 110 S Franklin Street, then 400 Church Street. Augusta Evans went on to write two of her most famous novels at Georgia Cottage, Macaria and St. Elmo. She married Lorenzo Madison Wilson in the parlor of the house in 1868. Following her marriage she moved into her husband's Greek Revival mansion, Ashland, namesake of the modern Ashland Place neighborhood. Georgia Cottage remained in the Evans family until 1879, when it was sold to Andrew Damrell. Damrell's heirs sold it in 1926 to J.N. Brownlee, and it was subsequently purchased by Dr. Edward Simmons Sledge in 1935. Dr. Sledge's son, Eugene Bondurant Sledge, grew up at Georgia Cottage. He served in the United States Marines during World War II and became a noted university professor and author. His memoir With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa was, in part, the basis for Ken Burn's PBS documentary, The War, and the HBO miniseries, The Pacific. Although now deep within the Mobile city limits, Georgia Cottage was a country house when originally built. Slave labor was utilized in its construction. The one-story wood-frame structure, on a brick foundation, is a stylistic blending of Gulf Coast cottage and Greek Revival forms. It has matching side wings to each side of the main block and a hipped roof. The house is situated at the end of a long avenue of live oaks, planted prior to 1840. The avenue is listed with Alabama's Famous and Historic Trees Program.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Georgia Cottage listed on the National Register?
Georgia Cottage was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 13, 1972.
What type of historic resource is Georgia Cottage?
Georgia Cottage is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Georgia Cottage?
The period of significance for Georgia Cottage is recorded as the civil_war era.
Can I research the history near Georgia Cottage?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Georgia Cottage will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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