Dinglewood Historic District

Description, Historical Narrative, and Significance of Dinglewood

Completed in 1858, Dinglewood is one of Columbus' outstanding homes. Long described as built like an Italian villa, the house has been referred to as an example of Victorian jig-saw ornament on and Italianate house by Frederick Nichols. Joel Hurt built Dinglewood for his wife Frances Flournoy Hurt and a proper setting for his daughter Julia, one of the great beauties of that time. Mr. Hurt acquired the property (originally about 20 acres) in 1857 from John Woolfolk for $5,500.00. The architects were Barringer and Morton of Columbus.

Joel Early Hurt spared no expense when building his home, rejecting the first set of plans after the lumber had been hauled and the building begun, as not grand enough for his wife. New plans were made and featured a water-works system and private gas works, both expensive and rare. Mr. Hurt brought slave labor from his Alabama plantation to work under expert direction in building the house. They also laid a pebbled walk similar to those in Italy and of real beauty, hammering the stones into a concrete bed, laying a pattern of palm leaves with the owners' initials in the center.

At the front of Dinglewood, a classical revival entrance with Corinthian columns in antis is used in the favorite Piedmont arrangement with simpler Doric entablature on the facade of a house in the Italian villa style. High, French windows with arched frames and shutters open onto the veranda. A number of low windows and a cupola provided ventilation. The wide mahogany stairs in the entrance hall circle up to the second floor. Molded plaster cornices near the ceiling and carved archways, as well as beautiful frescoes, were supervised by a Mr. Fuber, who lived on the place in order to oversee the work. Italian workmen did most of the finish work. Two houses built for the workmen to live in are still located on the property.

On the left side of the house are a spacious parlour, music room and dining room which open into each other, and a small office for the master of the house. On the right side is an informal sitting room and two large bedrooms. The kitchen is in the rear. Upstairs there were originally six bedrooms. The cupola was also used as a sewing room for the seamstress because it provided better light. Each room has a marble mantel. Those mantels downstairs are more elaborate than the ones in the bedrooms. Over the parlour mantels hang magnificent, heavy, gilt mirrors brought over from Europe and are original to the house. All of these rooms were furnished with rosewood and English mahogany also from Europe. The house was truly magnificent for its day.

Dinglewood was the scene of the marriage of Julia and Captain Peyton Colquitt, of a famous Georgia family, during the time of the Civil War. Julia donned her riding habit as her going-away costume, and rode to Virginia with her husband. Having attained the rank of Colonel, Colquitt was fatally wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga, leaving beautiful Julia a young widow with no children. It is reported that Julia and her mother lived in Paris during the remaining was years, as did other men of distinction, such as Gen. Robert Toombs and Gen. Beauregard.

Julia's beauty attracted the attention of Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, great-nephew of the Emperor, who had been a classmate of Peyton Colquitt's at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. However, she spurned him in marriage, remembering the fate of Elizabeth Patterson of Baltimore, who had married the Emperor's brother, Jerome. (Miss Patterson's marriage to Jerome was never recognized by the Emperor, although U.S. Law and Pope Pius did. Jerome had to do as his brother bid, leaving "Betsy" and his young son, and marrying Princess Catherine of Wurttemberg, for the sake of the State. Their son, Charles Paul, was recognized as the Emperor's heir.)Julia received many mementos of this courtship, but refused his hand in marriage and returned to Dinglewood. She later became the wife of Lee Jordan of Macon, who was said to be the wealthiest gentleman in Georgia at the time.

Miss Frances Adams, whose mother was also a Flournoy, inherited the Dinglewood from her first cousin, Julia, and Miss Adams left it to Annie Hind, her friend. The house was purchased by Lloyd G. Bowers, III in 1950, and is still owned by the Bowers family today. The house is not open to the public.