This house started being built in the 1860s, right before the Civil War, and finished in 1870. The McLendon Family owned it and the big farm around it. They used sharecroppers – people who farmed the land and lived there, giving part of their crops as rent.
When you enter the house, a single-floor building, there’s a big hallway with high ceilings and rooms on both sides. The walls are covered with smooth, painted boards, and there’s always a cool breeze.
Around the early 1900s, they added more space to the back of the house for more people. There’s also a separate kitchen outside that’s still there.
Many families lived on this farm in simpler houses. This main house was the center of everything. Nearby, there was a store where the farmers traded coupons for things they needed.
Records from the farm tell us about the daily life of the people who worked there. Farming was hard, and over time, workers left for factory jobs. By 1940, it was tough to find enough people to work on the farm. Charles Hatton (C.H.) McLendon wrote about this struggle and the need to change farming methods.
C.H. passed away in 1967, and the farm closed after that. In the 1980s, it was used for hunting, but then it was abandoned and fell apart.
