Quarters A – UGA 1900 (Cobb House) (1908, Category 2). This building was originally constructed as a private residence, referred to as Hill Crest, by Lamar and Ann Olivia Newton Cobb in 1908. Lamar Cobb was the son of former Georgia governor General Howell Cobb, and Ann Cobb was a charter member of the Athens Garden Club. The house was sold to the University of Georgia in 1930 upon Mrs. Cobb’s death. The residence exhibits elements of both the Queen Anne and Colonial revival styles. It was adapted for use by the Coordinate College as a dormitory in 1932, and later sold to the U.S. Navy in 1953. The navy adapted it for use as a Commanding Officer’s Quarters.
As noted in the 2002 Historic Buildings Preservation Plan, Quarters A
is a two-story wood frame single family dwelling with a steeply pitched copper hipped roof. The building’s wrap around porch and roof are indicators of Queen Anne influence, while the building’s Classical pilasters and symmetrical composition are elements of Colonial Revival influence. The exterior walls have been covered in stucco. The primary facade has a one-story five-bay hipped roof wood porch with thin, square wood columns, a balustrade, a central wood pediment, and a screened-in eastern bay. A projecting bay contains the house’s central entrance which consists of a wood paneled double door, a segmental arched leaded glass transom, and sidelights. This entrance also has an elaborate bull’s eye surround that may have been a re-used element from an antebellum house. The second floor of the primary facade features three pairs of two over two windows and a gabled central roof dormer with a louvered Palladian window. Delicate wood double pilasters accentuate the corners of the primary facade.
The porch wraps around to cover portions of the east and west elevations. A three-sided two-story bay sits at the rear of the east elevation, while the rear elevation has a one-story hipped roof section on its east corner flanked on the west by a small porch and a shed roof addition. The main roof has brick chimneys on its east and west faces. Most of the windows have two over two wood sashes, but there are a few one over one wood windows on the first floor.
Storm windows and a detached garage were added in 1976, while the current copper colored metal standing seam roof dates from 1983.
The building retains integrity and is assessed as a Category 2 resource.
