Barnsley Gardens

Barnsley Resort
Mansion ruins and gardens
Barnsley Gardens is located in Georgia
Barnsley Gardens
Location within Georgia
34°17′55″N 84°59′15″W / 34.29853°N 84.98762°W / 34.29853; -84.98762
LocationBartow County,
near Adairsville, Georgia
History
Built1840s
Built forGodfrey Barnsley
Site notes
Architectural style
Italianate
Governing bodyPrivate

Barnsley Resort is situated on the grounds of a historic former manor house near Adairsville, Georgia, United States. Originally known as Woodlands (later known as Barnsley Gardens), the estate was established by Godfrey Barnsley, originally of Liverpool, England. He built the Italianate manor in the late 1840s.[1][2]

History

Close-up of the ruins

Barnsley acquired 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) of land from the state of Georgia after acquiring it from the Cherokee nation.[3] The land was then divided into 160-acre plots. The original manor at Barnsley Resort was built for Godfrey's wife Julia, surrounded by rare trees and shrubs from afar afield as Norway.[4] Before the mansion was completed, Julia fell ill and died, and Barnsley suspended its construction. Later, he said he felt her presence at the site telling him to finish the house for him and his children.[2] The mansion was built in the style of an Italian villa by the landscape architect Andrew Jackson Downing.[5] Barnsley lost his fortune during the Civil War (during which the home was burned as part of the Sherman's March to the Sea) and later moved to New Orleans before he died in 1873.

Barnsley's descendants continued to live at Woodlands until the roof of the main house was blown off by a tornado in 1906. Barnsley's granddaughter, Adelaide Saylor, and her family who were living there at the time, moved into the kitchen wing and the main house was never restored,[5] and eventually fell to ruins. In 1988 Prince Hubertus Fugger purchased the estate and began a major project to stabilize the ruins and rescue and restore the gardens. The original boxwood hedges planted in the early 1840s still survived and had grown up into a thicket of small trees and vines. These were carefully cut back over a number of years to reveal the interweaving paths and flower beds of the original parterre garden. This is now one of the few surviving antebellum gardens of the southern United States.[2]

Mansion

The mansion was divided into three sections, with the central part being two stories and topped by a tower, below which marble steps led up the main entrance. Flanking the hallway were spacious drawing rooms and libraries. The right wing also contained a banquet hall (featuring a mahogany dining table large enough to seat 40 people)[6] and billiard and smoking rooms, below which, in the cellar, was the kitchen, store rooms and cellar. (The dining table and sideboard were made for Pedro I of Brazil, while a gilt clock in the library was once the property of Marie Antoinette.)[6] The left wing housed temporary living quarters for the home's construction workers while it was being completed. The second floor contained sixteen bedrooms.[4] At the rear was a terrace. At the time of Lucian Lamar Knight's visit, around 1913, for his book Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials and Legends, the grave of Colonel Richard G. Earle,[7] was located over the brow of a hill behind the mansion. Earle was killed on May 17, 1864, during the Civil War while warning Barnsley of Sherman's approach.[6] His grave was later moved to the gardens of the mansion's ruins.

At the foot of the slope stood an ivy-covered spring-house, described by Knight as being "one of the prettiest spots in which the imagination could possibly revel." Inside it, the spring bubbled up and made its way over the terrain until it became a sizable stream.[6]

A cyclone tore the roof off the mansion around the turn of the 20th century, which—along with vandalism―led to the building's ruinous state.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 8, 2006. Retrieved May 2, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. 1 2 3 "Georgia Luxury Resorts: Barnsley Gardens Resort Atlanta Georgia GA area luxury hotels resorts spas conferences centers suites romantic family vacations hunting fishing getaways golf courses packages weddings meetings planning restaurants pet friendly". Archived from the original on February 13, 2011. Retrieved May 2, 2009.
  3. ↑ Knight, Lucian Lamar (1913). Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials, and Legends ...: Landmarks and memorials. Historical outlines, original settlers, and distinguished residents of the counties of Georgia. p. 27.
  4. 1 2 Knight, Lucian Lamar (1913). Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials, and Legends ...: Landmarks and memorials. Historical outlines, original settlers, and distinguished residents of the counties of Georgia. p. 28.
  5. 1 2 "Godfrey Barnsley and Barnsley Gardens". Archived from the original on February 16, 2009. Retrieved May 2, 2009.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Knight, Lucian Lamar (1913). Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials, and Legends ...: Landmarks and memorials. Historical outlines, original settlers, and distinguished residents of the counties of Georgia. p. 29.
  7. ↑ "Grave marker for Confederate Colonel Richard G. Earle, commanding officer of the 2nd Alabama Cavalry Regiment, Barnsley Gardens, near Adairsville, Bartow County, Georgia. circa March 1947". Digital Library of Georgia. Retrieved June 24, 2026.
  8. ↑ Knight, Lucian Lamar (1913). Georgia's Landmarks, Memorials, and Legends ...: Landmarks and memorials. Historical outlines, original settlers, and distinguished residents of the counties of Georgia. author. p. 30.

Further reading

  • Wade, Charles H. (2018). "Georgia's Barnsley Gardens: Preserving a Landscape of the Lost Cause". Historical Geography. 46: 166–202.
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