This summer I was given the amazing opportunity to work with the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation in collaboration with Kevin and Laine Berry on putting their house, the James Caine Little House on the National Register of Historic Places. Significant under criterion “C” for its architecture, the Little House is a Gothic Revival house in Louisville, Georgia. The Little House is a rare example of Gothic Revival architecture of its size and massing in a residential structure in the town of Louisville and throughout the southeast United States. The Little House had a steeply pitched roof with three dormers across the front façade and barge board trim along every eve of the house. The house had a full facade front porch that wrapped around three-quarters of the house, typical of Gothic Revival houses from the late nineteenth century. In the interior, the massing consisted of a central hall passage with four rooms on the first and second floor with two additional ells added to the back of the house on the first floor. Mr. Little most likely added the ells during a renovation in the late nineteenth century.
During my time researching the house for the nomination, I was able to uncover several pieces of information that were not well known before. This information added to the understanding of the history of the house and property. My classes at Clemson and CofC’s Graduate Program in Historic Preservation prepared me to be successful in my research. Upon my investigation of the interior and close examination of some of the timber elements, evidence pointed to the fact that the house was older than the purchase date. It was a long-held idea that Mr. Little built the house when he bought the property in 1875. However, the deed research I conducted proved otherwise. In the deed of conveyance from 1875 to Mr. Little, I discovered that the house was most likely already built, along with other structures. This explains the much earlier Greek Revival interior of the house. My investigation also led me to focus on the southeast room. The interior of the room had beaded clapboard of different widths on all four walls. This was the only part of the house that had hand-hewn lumber in the sill and joist members. The interior investigation suggested that this particular room was indeed older than the rest of the house.
On the evening of July 20th, I got a message from a member of the Jefferson County Historical Society. She told me that the house was struck by lightning and was on fire. The Little House suffered irreparable damage. The house’s Gothic Revival features and most of the structure was completely destroyed. This was devastating to the historic preservation community and to the town of Louisville, Georgia. The house was important because of its rare example of Gothic Revival features, but now it is gone. However, I kept good documentation of the house in photographs for the national register nomination. With this information, future generations will learn about the historic architecture of the nineteenth century in Louisville, Georgia. In addition to my photographs, I have a number of notes and files found during the course of my research. The destruction of the Little House serves as a reminder of why the preservation and documentation of historic structures is important. While it is disappointing that the Little House is now gone, the history of this house will live on in the archives and never be forgotten.
Lisa Gardiner – Class of 2021
