University President’s House – UGA 2251 (1856, Category 1). The University of Georgia President’s House was built in 1856 by John T. Grant. The two-story frame building is a Greek Revival mansion that features a raised basement and a four-over-four room, central hall plan. The facade includes a three-sided peristyle supported by fourteen columns set on brick pillars. Eight of the pillars occur on the principal facade, while there are three on each side of the building. The pilasters are Corinthian. The heroic porch supports a Doric entablature that falls below the roof line but above the windows. There is no pediment.
The National Register nomination for the property notes:
The mansion is “’a veritable museum piece’ because both the house and formal garden are such fine typical examples of the Greek Revival period of design… The house is an outstanding example of Greek Revival architecture [built] by John Thomas Grant in 1856… The house and grounds are now of ‘museum’ status and serve as an important example of the union of architecture and landscape architecture within the context of the Greek Revival period in Georgia’s Piedmont… It is a magnificently maintained symbol; a public monument; a work of architecture in the broad and profound senses of that term.
The house retains integrity and is assessed as a Category 1 resource.
