{"nrhp_refnum":"78001002","name":"Tompkins Inn","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"N of Eatonton on U.S. 441","address_restricted":false,"city":"Eatonton","county":"Putnam County","state":"GA","lat":33.43640952000004,"lon":-83.37752983899998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-10-05","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Industry","Transportation","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 1 1/2-story frame inn on U.S. Highway 441 near Eatonton, Putnam County, Georgia, with its oldest section dating from about 1812, plus one surviving outbuilding. It sits on 3.03 acres along the old post road.","why_significant":"The inn is significant to early Putnam County history as an example of the county's early architecture and as a building built and run by early settlers. It served as a stagecoach inn on the old post road between Milledgeville and Athens and housed many state legislators traveling to the capital. The inn and its outbuilding are fine examples of early 1800s handhewn braced-frame construction.","narrative":"Tompkins Inn is a 1 1/2-story frame building beside the old post road near Eatonton, Putnam County, Georgia. Its oldest section dates from about 1812 and has two rooms up and two down, with large brick fireplaces and heavy handhewn timbers joined by mortise and tenon. The corner posts are L-shaped, each shaped from a single piece of wood. A similar outbuilding behind the inn reportedly housed servants and stagecoach drivers. Additions were made in the early twentieth century, probably around 1920. The inn operated for many years as a stagecoach stop on the route between Milledgeville, then the state capital, and Athens, and it lodged many legislators heading to the capital. Giles Tompkins, an original Putnam County settler, bought the land in 1812, and his family ran the inn for decades. Federal ownership followed in 1936, and a garden club has restored and used the property since the early 1970s. It is among the few surviving remnants of the county's earliest architecture.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Restored to good condition since 1970 and in use by a garden club; the form checks the status as unoccupied, with a club listed as present use.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:40.942537-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/78001002.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001002/7f7ccaff96-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001002/7f7ccaff96-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Jud McCranie","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tompkins_Inn,_Putnam_County,_GA,_US.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jud McCranie</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tompkins_Inn,_Putnam_County,_GA,_US.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93209308","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q134440975"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/putnam-county/tompkins-inn-78001002/"}