Manning Gin Farm

Manning Gin Farm is a 15-acre farm complex southeast of Bethlehem in Barrow County, Georgia. Its centerpiece is a wood-framed I-house, built around 1887 by Robert L. Manning, with a central hall plan, a rear ell and a two-story front porch. Across the road stands a metal-sided cotton gin from about 1905, still holding its original machinery from the Murray Gin Co. Around the house are sixteen contributing buildings, including a mule barn, corn crib, milk barn, smokehouse, cook's house and maid's house. The terraced front yard, cast-concrete block walls and hexagonal pavers show the ornamental yard tradition of rural Georgia. Manning grew cotton, corn, wheat and oats, and formed the Manning Gin Company around 1912 to serve neighboring cotton farmers; the gin ran until about 1945. The farm was listed for its architecture, its agricultural role and its landscape design, and for being one of few intact farms of its kind left in the state.