Joseph House

Located at 828 Broadway in Columbus, Georgia, this ten-room wood house combines Greek Revival form with Gothic wood trim, an early example of that blend. It was probably built by William Langdon in 1842, though deed records first mention buildings on the lot in 1861, when Isaac Joseph bought the property. The house has a central hallway, fifteen-foot ceilings, six-inch oak plank floors, and a long rear ell holding an old-fashioned kitchen. A wide veranda with ten slender wooden columns and ornamental brackets wraps the west side and parts of the north and south. The west wall is plastered to emphasize the front door, while the rest has clapboard siding over a brick foundation. Isaac Joseph, a steamboat line president, added bachelor quarters at the rear and bought the neighboring rose garden after the Civil War. The house stayed in the Joseph family for more than a century and is considered one of the oldest in the local Historic District.