{"nrhp_refnum":"86002007","name":"Fortson, H. E., House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"221 Richardson St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Hartwell","county":"Hart County","state":"GA","lat":34.35855319500007,"lon":-82.92806526999999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-09-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Black","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small one-story frame house at 221 Richardson Street in Hartwell, Hart County, Georgia, built around 1913 as the residence of the Reverend H. E. Fortson. It has a wrap-around porch and a hipped roof.","why_significant":"The house is tied to the Reverend H. E. Fortson, a minister and teacher in the Rome section of Hartwell who served the First Baptist Church and preached at other Hart County churches. It is also a good example of the modest central-hall house built for middle-class Black citizens in the early 20th century. Few examples of this type survive with their major features intact.","narrative":"Built around 1913 at 221 Richardson Street in Hartwell, this small one-story frame house was the home of the Reverend H. E. Fortson, a minister at Hartwell First Baptist Church, which stood across the street. He also preached at several other Hart County churches and was known as a minister and teacher in the Rome section of Hartwell. The house has a hipped roof with a gabled dormer, a shed-roofed wrap-around porch on simple posts, and an entrance flanked by sidelights. Four rooms open off a central hall, and a rear ell adds two more rooms. Original mantels survive, though the rooms were later paneled and the ceilings lowered in 1970. After Fortson left, the property served as a rental and was acquired by members of the Gaines family in 1947. It was listed for its link to local Black social history and as a surviving example of the modest central-hall houses built for prosperous Black residents of small Georgia towns.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":["B","C"],"status_note":"In good condition and used as a residence; interior rooms were paneled and ceilings lowered in 1970.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:42.819394-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/86002007.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86002007/eaad063b45-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86002007/eaad063b45-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Upstateherd","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:H.E._Fortson_House.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Upstateherd</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:H.E._Fortson_House.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93206238","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._E._Fortson_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q55613162"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/hart-county/fortson-h-e-house-86002007/"}