American Lives

Jeremiah S Gilbert (1829-1932) was the son of an early settler of Fulton County, one William Gilbert (circa 1807-1864).

William was the first physician in Fulton County, serving as a member of the Georgia General Assembly in 1843. Jeremiah's grandfather, Charner Humphries (1795-1855) owned and operated the first-known inn in the area - Whitehall - and in 1861, after the death of his father, Jeremiah inherited five hundred acres of land which was previously owned by his grandfather.

This is where the Jeremiah S Gilbert House sits in modern Atlanta, Georgia.

Located on a heavily wooded lot, the Jeremiah S Gilbert House is one of Atlanta's oldest surviving structures. It employs a distinctive building technology using field stones, mortar, and wood. It is one of the few examples of this construction type still found in Atlanta and was constructed in 1868.

The Gilbert House has a threefold significance: firstly as the home of one of Atlanta's earliest families; secondly as a rare example of an exceptionally significant technology; and lastly as a rare extant example of an Atlanta farmhouse complete with surrounding outbuildings situated on a relatively large parcel of undeveloped land. The land is surrounded by the city's Avery Park.

In 1861, Gilbert enlisted in the Third Regiment of the Georgia State Troops, one of the first Confederate companies to organize in Georgia. Upon his return from the war, he found that his first home had been destroyed by Union troops in 1864, at which time he began construction on the house that exists today.

The original home had been built by William Gilbert, Jeremiah's uncle, on what was known as 'Rough and Ready Road'. Rough and Ready was an enclave further south of Atlanta that is mentioned in Gone With the Wind.

The property remained in the Gilbert family until the City of Atlanta purchased it from Jeremiah's granddaughters in 1971. The house is a well-preserved two-story rectangular farmhouse. Its architecture reflects varying building techniques and styles that were popular when the house was first built, as well as when it was remodeled many years later in the 1930s.

The house's earliest features reflect the necessity to use materials and techniques available to Jeremiah Gilbert on his farm land, due to scarce building supplies and loss in transportation and commerce during the 'Reconstruction' period after the American Civil War. Gilbert constructed the exterior walls of fieldstone and a mortar-like substance of clay and sand.

The Gilbert House is located on a slight rise of cleared land. Although the land is largely wooded, the area immediately surrounding the house has been cleared. This area of Atlanta is known as Sylvan Hills, once part of the extensive spreads of both the Gilbert family and the Perkerson family (Jeremiah Gilbert married Sarah Matilda Perkerson).

The holdings are believed to date to 1831, when 200-plus acre lots were distributed by lotteries following native American treaties and cessions. This neighborhood is located about six miles south and slightly west of Atlanta's historic center: Five Points. At the time of the Gilberts starting in the area, Atlanta was known by its original, railroad-derived name, Terminus.

In the early 1980s, funds of $200,000 were set aside from the city to save the property from vandalism and decay, and also to renovate the structure. Today, the house is on the National Register of Historic Places and is maintained as an arts and community center. Its address is 2238 Perkerson Road SW, Atlanta, GA.

One photo on this page licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license by Elisa Rolle.