The Folly - Leander May's Octagon Folly

"The Folly"

Perhaps one of the most photographed houses in the Original City Historic District is "The Folly". It is a one-story double-octagonal house with gothic detailing and is the most unusual house in The District. The house, located at 527 First Avenue, in addition to being listed on the National Register, has been designated by the Department of the Interior as a National Historic Landmark.

This house constructed during the War Between the States follows the pattern and philosophy of Orson Squire Fowler, whose 1854 publication, A House for All, swept the country and created a clamorous demand, for Fowler was seeking both the maximum amount of usable space for a dwelling, plus several stoutly-held opinions regarding health and ventilation.

Originally known as May's Folly, after its builder, cabinet-maker Leander May, the house is presently known simply as The Folly and was featured in Clay Lancaster's Architectural Follies in America. A dwelling has existed at 527 First Avenue since 1831, when Julia Forsyth, the daughter of Georgia Governor John Forsyth, married a Columbus attorney, Alfred Iverson, who later became a U.S. Congressman and senator. The young couple came to live in the modest white house which occupied lot 124.

Alfred Iverson became one of Georgia's most distinguished citizens. He was a member of the Georgia Legislature for seven years and judge of the Superior Court for the Columbus circuit. In 1846 he was elected to Congress and in 1855 to the Unites State Senate. He was the first Southerner in the Senate to threaten secession. In January 1861, Iverson withdrew from the Senate, when Georgia passed the ordinance of secession. He returned home to help assist in procuring labor and supplies for the Confederate effort. His son, Alfred Iverson, Jr., became a Brigadier-General in the Confederate Army, as well as son John, became a colonel in the CSA.

Mr. Iverson sold the house on First Avenue in 1857 to Mrs. Savanna G. Faber when he moved to Washington, D.C. Then on September 25, 1862, the house was sold to Mr. Leander May, trustee for Hannah P. May, by Mrs. Faber for a price of $400. Mr. May was a cabinet maker and added the octagonal, four room addition in front of the original cottage. This "remodeling" converted the original cottage into the present flamboyant neo-gothic double-octagonal.

The Folly was sold on May 11, 1865, to Mrs. Catherine Flynn for the sum of fifteen thousand dollars in Confederate treasury notes and the further price of $500 in gold. The year 1863 is the one most often cited as the year May made his eccentric addition. Just after the Civil War, the house was sold by Mrs. Flynn to Michael Barschall. Fannie Barschall cut her name on a window pane in the dining room with a diamond ring.

In 1875 the house was sold to Captain Thomas Jefferson Bates and in 1911 to George L. Sheram. The Historic Columbus Foundation, Inc., purchased the house from Freer Sheram King, granddaughter of George L. Sheram, on June 5, 1967. This was the first acquisition of the Historic Columbus Foundation. The house is currently owned by Mr. F. Clason Kyle, HCF Board of Directors Member Emeritus and noted Columbus historian. Dr. William J. Murtagh, keeper of the National Register, United States Department of the Interior, was the speaker when The Folly was dedicated on November 8, 1974, as a National Historic Landmark, the city's first. The Folly is believed to be the only double-octagon house in the United States.

The Joseph House c.1840 - 828 Broadway

From Etta Worsley's Columbus on the Chattahoochee (1951): "The home of the late Mr. and Mrs. I. Joseph, at 828 Broadway, is one of the oldest in the neighborhood, being a hundred years old and still in the same family. With its ample veranda, it spreads across a lawn one hundred feet wide, shaded with ancient cabbage palm and tropical fern vines brought up the river from Apalachicola by the "Fannie Fearn" or one of the other steamboats of the line of which Mr. Joseph was president. It has a long ell in the back for the old-fashioned kitchen and dining-room, now enclosed in glass, and the delightful antique furnishings of the house are made more beautiful by the touch of the artistic hands of the Joseph sisters.

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph were one of the first couples to be married in the old Episcopal Church on First Avenue after its completion, and went to live with the Nathaniel Waldrons, parents of Mrs. Joseph, who owned several of the original lots on First Avenue. The rambling ten-room home on Broad Street (Broadway), with its bachelor house for the Joseph boys and rose gardens in the rear, was purchased by them soon after The Civil War. It has been the hospitable home of the Josephs for eighty years. First owned by the McGoughs, it was later the home of H.H. Epping, some years before the war, and here "Miss Leo" Epping was born and took her first baby step. Many years later, she became the bride of the second George Parker Swift, and lived in the well-remembered big brick house on the corner of Twelfth Street and Second Avenue with its wrought iron fence, which is now the site of the handsome Federal Building and Post Office."

From Images by Clason Kyle: "Little Fannie Joseph" was surely one of a privileged few in Columbus seen being strolled around town in a carriage of such ornate wicker splendor. A nice decorative and customizing touch was the letter "J", which is in plain view just above the left rear wheel. Fannie's father, Issac Joseph, was president of a successful line of steamboats which traveled the waters of the Chattahoochee-Apalachicola-Flint river system and owner of the 1840 Joseph House at 828 Broadway. This house was inhabited by Joseph family members for over one hundred years and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. (Photograph courtesy of the Columbus College Archives.)"