Durham Homeplace

Set on about two acres in rural Oconee County, this farmstead centers on a log house built around 1830 by Etheral Sorrel and bought in 1832 by Dr. Lindsey Durham, a noted herbal doctor who lived elsewhere. The one-and-one-half-story hall-parlor house has hand-hewn, half-dovetail-notched logs, stone chimneys and a full-width porch. Around 1900 to 1910, Paul Walker Durham, a carpenter and builder, added rear rooms, a central hall, a kitchen ell and a front room, turning it into a Georgian-plan cottage. A corn crib, a cook's quarters and a smokehouse survive as contributing outbuildings, while a manufactured home is noncontributing. The property was listed for architecture because the early log section remains intact and distinct from the later additions, illustrating how Georgia houses grew from plain settlement-era dwellings into larger, more fashionable homes. Farming ended in the 1950s, and fields have since reverted to woodland.