413 Winn Street (House), Americus

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA,131-AMER,13-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Example of a cottage-style house typical of residential houses the area ca. Description: This central hallway cottage sits high above the street with concrete steps up to a walkway to the porch steps. It is raised on brick piers and has a metal standing seam roof. The centered front floor has a window on either side; the one remaining window is There is an exterior chimney on the north end of the house and another on the interior. Two gabled wings have been added out the rear. A bath and porch are under a shed roof beyond the N.E. wing. History: This lot formerly known as 314 was owned by E.C. Spencer who sold it to Mary Grice Mary Johnson, formerly Mary Grice, built a cottage style house typical of that era and later sold the property to B. W. Waren.

314 Winn Street, now 413 Winn Street, was conveyed, bought or sold over the years until Addie Reese, Administratrix of the Estate of Addie Ben Johnson, deceased, sold the structure to the City of Americus. Such structure was considered dilapidated and neglected. It was acquired persuant to the Jefferson/Ashby Urban Redevelopment Area Plan to be demolished. This house was located in the McCoy Hill neighborhood, encompassing Academy, McCoy, Poplar, Winn, Jefferson and Ashby streets. It was originally the residential property of a prominent antebellum attorney and Confederate general, Henry Kent McCay. The modem misspelling results from the name's pronunciation not matching its own spelling.

During the Reconstruction Era in the the site was used for public executions even as freedmen were establishing a black residential neighborhood in the immediate vicinity. After the destruction of the old McCay home in the early the site became the location of the city's first public school for blacks, McCoy Hill School, Built in With the earlier addition of Mt. Olive Baptist Church in the neighborhood boasted the residences of many of the black community's professional class. For example, two of the city's preeminent black educators, Professors George Philips and Alfred S. Staley, were homeowners there. For almost 130 years, the McCoy Hill neighborhood has nurtured generations of Americus' black citizenry.

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA,131-AMER,13-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Alan Anderson, Sumter Historic Preservation Society Historian and Archivist Meda Krenson, Architect Desi L Wynter, Acquisition and Relocation Coordinator 413 WINN STREET (HOUSE) HABS No. GA-2283 (PAGE 2) 2 I '' p I ...'i C\I .:: 0- ... I \9 POP.CH 8 DECEMBER TIM LITTLEFIELD