{"nrhp_refnum":"75002072","name":"Gay, Mary, House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"716 W. Trinity Pl.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Decatur","county":"DeKalb County","state":"GA","lat":33.77622617900005,"lon":-84.29833194999998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-05-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A c.1850 frame house at 524 Marshall Street in downtown Decatur, DeKalb County, Georgia. It began as a one-story Classical style house and was later altered to one and a half stories.","why_significant":"It is one of very few surviving pre-Civil War buildings in the Decatur area. It has notable mid-19th-century interior details, including mantels, a carpenter lock and a closet. It was also the home for over sixty years of Mary Ann Harris Gay, a local historian and author who wrote an eyewitness account of Decatur during the Civil War.","narrative":"Built around 1850 at 524 Marshall Street in downtown Decatur, this frame house began as a one-story Classical style dwelling with a central temple-form portico. Around the turn of the 20th century it was reoriented to face Marshall Street and given a jerkin head roof, bracketed eaves and a partial porch that reuses two of the original columns. Inside, the parlor keeps an Adam style mantel with sunburst designs, along with wide flooring, simple moldings and a closet with a carpenter lock. It is one of very few pre-Civil War buildings left in the Decatur area. Mary Ann Harris Gay lived here for more than sixty years. She wrote four books, including Life in Dixie During the War, which recounts Union cavalry occupying her property in 1864. Two 19th-century outbuildings remain to the west. At the time of listing the house stood unoccupied and was threatened by encroaching commercial development.","period_of_significance":"19th Century (c.1850)","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Classical (originally simple Classical style frame structure, later altered)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as unoccupied, in fair condition and altered, with the house at risk of removal or demolition. Later material describes a plan to relocate it to Adair Park.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:41.080443-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/75002072.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75002072/600baf2551-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75002072/600baf2551-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"strixxvaria","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Gay_House.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">strixxvaria</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Gay_House.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"12000281","name":"Decatur Downtown Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/georgia/decatur-downtown-historic-district-12000281/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93207777","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Gay_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q43079659"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/dekalb-county/gay-mary-house-75002072/"}