Lathemtown Historic District, Leila Y. and Ray W. Lathem House, 11609 Cumming Highway (State Route 20), Lathemtown

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-N. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Leila Y. and Ray W. Lathem House is located at Cumming Highway/State Route 20 (SR 20) in Cherokee County, Georgia. The resource sits on the north side of the highway and stands just east of Trenton Lane. The house is located at latitude: longitude: This point was taken from the center of the Leila Y. and Ray W. Lathem House. It was obtained on September 10, using Google Earth There is no restriction on its release to the public.

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-N. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Leila Y. and Ray W. Lathem House is a contributing resource to the Lathemtown Historic District. The early twentieth-century residence supports Lathemtown s significance as an intact, rural historic district. The house stands as a representation of the agricultural community s continued growth and development during the first half of the twentieth century. See the Lathemtown Historic District (HABS No. GA-2445) overview for further discussion of overall district significance. Historians: Marvin Brown, M.A., Senior Architectural Historian, AECOM Sarah Potere, Architectural Historian, AECOM Report Completed October

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-N. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Georgia Department of Transportation is implementing plans to widen State Route 20 from two to six lanes between Scott Road (near Canton) and North Corners Parkway (near Cumming). The project corridor spans approximately miles and falls within Cherokee and Forsyth Counties. As a result of this roadway expansion, all or part of the Leila Y. and Ray W. Lathem House will be demolished. Mitigation efforts were explored and a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was developed between the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Georgia Department of Transportation, and the Georgia State Historic Preservation Officer. This Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) documentation (historical narrative report and large format photography) was prepared in accordance with the stipulations of the MOA.

LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, LEILA Y. AND RAY W. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No. GA-2445-N (Page 2) Description: The Leila Y. and Ray W. Lathem House stands on the north side of SR 20 to the east of Trenton Lane. It is oriented to the south and is the primary resource on its lot. The house is accompanied by two mid twentieth-century sheds which sit to its rear. Standing one-story tall, the house is topped by a cross-gabled roof and features a roughly T-shaped footprint. The building is clad in brick veneer, which was likely added sometime during the mid twentieth-century, and its roof capped with asphalt shingles (Figure 3). It is comprised of a three-bay, side-gabled main block with a single-bay, three-pile-deep block attached to its western gable end.

As result, the house is four-bays wide at its south (front) facade. A slight seam is visible near the juncture of the two blocks on the building s front facade, which suggests the eastern front-gabled block to be a slightly later addition. A ca. photograph of the W.A. Lathem and Sons Store (located to the direct east of the house) supports this architectural evidence and provides a partial glimpse of the house from around approximately a year after its construction. The image depicts a three-bay, side-gabled residence clad in weatherboards, reminiscent of the American Small House building type.

1 Historic aerials show that the building was altered to its current building footprint by 2 A large exterior-end, double-stack, slab, brick chimney rises from the building s western gable end and is topped with a metal chimney cap. A pedimented portico with cornice returns frames the central bay of the side-gable block. It displays board and batten cladding at its gable and is supported by turned wooden posts. As revealed by the ca. image, both the chimney and portico were mid twentieth-century alterations. The portico rests on a raised concrete stoop surrounded by brick headers. The stoop is approached by a single brick stair. Resting beneath the portico is the building s primary entrance, which is centrally placed on the side-gabled block.

It holds a wood-slab door which features three large, vertical lights resting atop two recessed panels. The door, which is original to the house s construction, retains its original wood surround. 3 Flanking either side of the doorway, but falling outside the bounds of the portico, are six-over-six, double-hung, wood-sash windows which are also original and retain their original surrounds. They are framed by fixed shutters. A paired set of windows of the same type, although more rectangular in shape, punctuate the center of the front-gabled block. Centered above the window is a small wooden vent. Flared eaves frame the front-facing gable. 1 Mary Helen Cissell, Living, Laughing and Loving in Old Lathemtown (Orange, GA: Orange United Methodist Women, 10.

2 Historic Aerials, aerials, (images) aerial image search of Cumming Highway, Netronline, accessed September 3 Cissell, Living, Laughing, Loving in Old Lathemtown, 10. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, LEILA Y. AND RAY W. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No. GA-2445-N (Page 3) Three openings punctuate the building s eastern facade. It s northern and southern openings hold rectangular six-over-six, double-hung, wood-sash windows and its central opening holds a smaller one-over-one double-hung, wood-sash unit. All openings rest on rowlock brick sills and retain their original wood surrounds. A single opening holds a pair of fixed six-light, wood windows on the building s western facade. A shed-roof porch extends to the building s rear (north).

Its three bays span the length of the main block and feature deep, over-hanging eaves. It rests on a raised wood porch deck and is supported by four, square wood posts. Two late twentieth-century sheds accompany the house on its parcel (Figure 4). History: Leila Youngblood and Ray Warren ( Ray or Warren ) Lathem, Sr. lived in this house, according to Leila, from a few months after their marriage until Ray s death in His parents, Charles Wesley ( Charlie ) and Ethel West Lathem, or one of his father s brothers, built it as a rental property. (According to Leila, Ray s family had a lot of rental houses and they also had the general store in Lathemtown . ) The house may date to the year assigned to it in tax records.

It was certainly standing by for Leila noted that: We lived with his parents for a few months [after their November 1 wedding] until one of the rental houses in Lathemtown became vacant. 4 Ray was still living with his parents and attending Canton High School in when he registered for the draft. For several years after he finished school, he worked for the family business, W.A. Lathem and Sons. Two years before his wedding, though, he became associated with Goodrich Company in Atlanta. 5 He subsequently became a minister. At his death, he was the pastor at Mt. Pisgah United Methodist Church in Alpharetta, where he had served since 6 4 Cissell, Living, Laughing, Loving in Old Lathemtown, 59. She and Ray met in high school in Canton, where she was from.

Although Leila recalled that they had lived in the house for almost 50 years, they had long absences from it when Ray served as a pastor in churches elsewhere in Georgia. 5 U.S. Bureau of the Census, Federal Census; U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, Ray Lathem accessed June https://www.ancestry.com/; Cissell, Living, Laughing, Loving in Old Lathemtown, 59; Miss Youngblood and Mr. Lathem to Marry Nov.1, Atlanta Constitution, October 20, accessed June 0Marry&match=1. 6 People on Parade, Atlanta Constitution, August 11, accessed June Lathem, Obituary, Atlanta Constitution, May 13, accessed June Lathem, Obituary, Atlanta Constitution, September 27, accessed June =Mr.%20Ray %20Lathem%2C% 20age%2072&match=1. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, LEILA Y. AND RAY W. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No.

GA-2445-N (Page 4)

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS GA-2445-N. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Atlanta Constitution. Miss Youngblood and Mr. Lathem to Marry Nov. 1. October 20, Accessed June 0Marry&match=1. People on Parade. August 11, Accessed June 399332584/?terms=The%20Rev.% Lathem. Obituary. May 13, Accessed June Ray%20Warren %20Lathem%2C%20III&match=2. Lathem. Obituary. September 27, Accessed June =Mr.%20Ray %20 Lathem%2C%20age%2072&match=1. Cissell, Mary Helen. Living Laughing and Loving in Old Lathemtown. Orange, GA: Orange United Methodist Church, Netronline. Historic Aerials: Cumming Highway. Internet Search Engine. Accessed September Sullivan, Patrick, Mary Beth Reed and Tracey Fedor: The Ranch House in Georgia: Guidelines for Evaluation. Stone Mountain, GA: New South Associates, United States Bureau of the Census. United States Federal Census.

Accessed April https://www.ancestry.com/. U.S. World War II Draft Registration Cards, Ray Lathem accessed June at https://www.ancestry.com/. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, LEILA Y. AND RAY W. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No. GA-2445-N (Page 5) Supplemental Materials 1. Figures Georgia GIO State Imagery September Figure 1: Leila Y. and Ray W. Lathem House District Locator Map. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, LEILA Y. AND RAY W. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No. GA-2445-N (Page 6) Figure 2: Leila Y. and Ray W. Lathem House Site Map. LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, LEILA Y. AND RAY W. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No. GA-2445-N (Page 7) Figure 3: Oblique of House, south (front) and east (side) facades. View looking northwest. (Photograph by Sarah Potere, July LATHEMTOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT, LEILA Y. AND RAY W. LATHEM HOUSE HABS No.

GA-2445-N (Page 8) Figure 4: Oblique of Non-Historic Shed, south (front) and east (side) facades. View looking northwest. (Photograph by Sarah Potere, July