{"nrhp_refnum":"77001540","name":"Gilmer, Thomas M., House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"5 mi. (8 km) W of Washington on U.S. 78","address_restricted":false,"city":"Washington","county":"Wilkes County","state":"GA","lat":33.97748496100007,"lon":-82.83510052899999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1977-11-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Politics/Government","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-and-a-half story frame house built about 1800 in the Goosepond area east of Vesta, Oglethorpe County, Georgia, by Thomas M. Gilmer, an early settler from western Virginia. It is now nearly a ruin.","why_significant":"It was the boyhood home of George R. Gilmer, twice governor of Georgia, whose book First Settlers of Upper Georgia records the Broad River settlement. It is also the only surviving material remnant of that settlement. Architecturally, its plan two rooms deep with side-by-side corner fireplaces is unique in Georgia and is read as a modification of the Swedish-Quaker plan from the Valley of Virginia.","narrative":"Built about 1800 in the Goosepond area of Oglethorpe County, Georgia, this one-and-a-half story frame house was the home of Thomas M. Gilmer, a settler from western Virginia. His son George R. Gilmer, later governor of Georgia, spent his boyhood there and described the neighborhood in First Settlers of Upper Georgia. The house is the last standing physical trace of that Broad River settlement. Its plan is unusual for Georgia: two rooms deep, with a short passage, a great room, and two smaller rooms with side-by-side corner fireplaces, plus a cellar fireplace and very wide brick chimneys laid in Flemish bond. The nomination links this arrangement to the Swedish-Quaker house plan known in the Valley of Virginia. A lost diamond-motif door had parallels in Virginia. The house is now nearly a ruin, stripped of doors and most mantels, and a family graveyard lies a short distance east.","period_of_significance":"1800","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as virtually a ruin after deterioration and vandalism; marked unoccupied, with doors and most mantels removed. A citizens' group hoped to see it purchased and restored.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:40.867625-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/77001540.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93209957","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/wilkes-county/gilmer-thomas-m-house-77001540/"}