2017 Design House has fascinating history

It all started in 1977 when the late Lee Oliver, a local architect, decided Macon, with its density of architecturally diverse houses, deserved a decorators’ show house. The Junior League of Macon Inc. was interested in sponsoring the show house as a fundraiser and the Willingham house on Vineville Avenue was unoccupied and available.

For several years afterward, the Junior League and Old Town Macon Inc. were involved in two more decorators’ show houses; Old Town had purchased a house on Orange Street, in the heart of a deteriorating residential neighborhood right down the hill from the main post office.

The four interior designers who participated in that audacious restoration — Bonnie C. Dowling, C. Terry Holland, Ann Williams and myself — were young and naive enough to each take on the task of several rooms, even when the house had to be gutted and a fertile imagination was imperative to envision the end result.

By the 1980s, because of the popularity of a show house and because there was enthusiastic anticipation for the next one, Macon Heritage Foundation, now Historic Macon Foundation, became the sponsoring organization. For years, the event was held every other year, giving the designers, and the HMF staff, a breather on a project that required a year’s planning.

Last year, the decorators’ show house was renamed the Design House, moved to a summer date and incorporated into Historic Macon’s annual Design, Wine and Dine 10-day festival.

A TREASURED NORMANDY COTTAGE IS SAVED

This year’s DWD event and the Design House are scheduled for June 15-25 and the house selected as this year’s project has generated a lot of buzz for at least three years. What was originally built on Houston Road in 1928 as a summer house for James Hyde Porter and his wife, Olive Swann Porter, was moved in 2013 to a lot on the periphery of Wesleyan College’s campus on Tucker Road.

Moving houses is nothing new to Historic Macon — the effort is worth saving historic structures, even those that require dismantling masonry walls.

The Porters, soon after their marriage, traveled the countryside of France and admired the architecture in Normandy, especially the “chateauesque” cottages that were modest adaptations of the larger, grander estates. For acreage he had purchased in the rural area of Houston Road, Porter contacted architect Elliott Dunwody Jr. to design a cottage unlike any the architect had drawn before — or since, according to local historian and Dunwody biographer James Barfield — according to a Macon Telegraph interview in 1928.

The cottage has details associated with the Tudor Revival style, earmarks of which are found in many of the houses designed by the late architect, one being the medieval ambiance of the owners’ living area, accessed through the tower.

At the time the house was built, the Porters wanted one wing for a weekend retreat and one for the caretaker and his family who would live there year round. The large living room of the Porters’ private area has vaulted ceilings supported by massive timber braces and a stone fireplace centered in the long wall. At one end, flanking the side entrance, are two tall cabinets behind wormy cypress doors that concealed the owners’ beds. The same wood was used for the arched corner cabinet at the opposite end of the room.

The caretaker’s quarters are separated from the owners’ by a covered walkway that extends the full length of the rear elevation between the two living areas. There is no interior passage from one space to the other. Since the tenant lived there fulltime, there were two bedrooms, a living room, a dining room and a kitchen, all of which are intact, except for the bedrooms.

The wall between the bedrooms was removed on either side of the fireplaces when the former owners, Porterfield Baptist Church, remodeled the house to accommodate offices.

Although the Porters maintained a permanent home on College Street, James Porter sold that house after his wife died in 1939 and moved to the “summer house,” one of the names given the weekend cottage, where he remained until his death in 1949.

On more than 20 acres of land, the Porters had a swimming pool, a pool house, bird coops, a barn, a greenhouse and a legendary, formal garden, the centerpiece of which were the roses. In 1934, the Macon Telegraph mentioned the first annual meeting of the Georgia Rose Society at Porterdale — another name used interchangeably with Porterfield, the Farmhouse and the Summer House.

After passing through the hands of several owners, Porterfield Baptist Church purchased the Porter weekend cottage, located near the church, in 1959. In 2008, during a stormy weekend in Macon, a tree fell through the house, compromising the structure and prompting the church to consider demolition.

Historic Macon Foundation was instrumental in having the house moved for restoration to the Tucker Road site, during which time Wesleyan started a campaign to raise $500,000 to be used for its exterior stabilization and preservation.

WESLEYAN’S GREATEST BENEFACTOR DURING LEAN YEARS

After his wife’s death, Porter gave Wesleyan $100,000 in 1940 toward the completion of the new campus. In the same year, he donated $150,000 to Mercer University for a women’s dormitory, which is still known as Mary Erin Porter Hall. In addition to his generosity for development at the two campuses, Porter, a member of the board of trustees at Wesleyan, had financially supported the college during the great depression, prompting Wesleyan to give him credit for “keeping the institution afloat” during those lean years.

The Porters, who had no children, were not anonymous donors to the students, for they were personally involved in the students’ lives. They invited Wesleyannes to their new weekend cottage for a barbecue outing and other activities.

The intertwined history of Wesleyan and the Porters has come full circle with the Porter cottage now located on the campus. It is not the rural setting for which the house was designed. However, the shaded lot is an appropriate new home for the Porter cottage, in a more stable suburban environment than the transitional development around the church on Houston Road.

PORTER HOUSE TRANSFORMATION

The house is now completely restored to its original design, with some updated amenities, including a new bathroom to replace the one added to the caretaker space in 1978, and a more efficient mini-kitchen adjoining the Porters’ original living space.

The land is still raw around the house, with only sidewalks and parking paved. However, landscape architect Wimberly Treadwell has plans in place to incorporate the columns that once stood at the entrance of Porterfield into a design reminiscent of the Porters’ formal gardens.

Historic Macon Foundation has called for interior designers’ applications to participate in decorating it for the Design House, and will announce the selection and room assignments by March 24, after which the design community will be in high gear to have the house ready for the Top Hat Party opening reception on June 15. On April 7, the traditional Hard Hat Party will be held at the house to let visitors see the interior without any furniture, window treatments or accessories — a blank canvas.

The unusual Normandy architecture, the Porters’ generosity to Wesleyan, to Mercer and to Georgia, and the marvel of the faithful restoration of the house make this Design House unique in the archives of decorators’ show houses.

To learn more about the Design, Wine and Dine schedule, visit the Historic Macon Foundation website at historicmacon.org or call 478-742-5084.

This story was originally published March 8, 2017 at 9:05 AM with the headline "2017 Design House has fascinating history."