March 2025
First Art Show at The Harper House
On March 22, 2025, a unique, charming venue will open in Washington County! A hundred-year-old restored sharecropper house will be transformed into a folk-art center. You are invited to this special, historic event! Come on out to 1430 Bartow Rd. (Hwy 242, just past Ridge Road), Sandersville, between 2 and 7 PM for the Grand Opening.
The Harper House, named for the family who raised ten children there, will be adorned with artwork by three celebrated professional folk artists from our region. Works by these artists will be available for purchase, or simply to view, be inspired by, and enjoy. The opening is free and all are welcome.
Miz Thang, aka Deb Garner, is originally from Sandersville and is half of the excellent Garner-Credle Estate Liquidators team. She has shown her artwork all over the southeast since 1998, at the Kentuck Festival of the Arts, the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, the Smith Calloway Banks Southern Folk Art collection, and the Research Center at Georgia Southern University.
Valton Murray has lived all his life in Warren County and from a young age taught himself to paint his visions of the southern landscape around him. Valton has been honored by Governor Zell Miller, and his works featured by Georgia Power, at the Kennedy Performing Arts Center and the House of Blues.
Tim Goodson of Wadley is a wood sculptor who creates original furniture, crafts, and artwork. He is a member of the Jefferson County Artist’s Guild, and he is known for unique commissioned works of wood and metal.
These noted artists will launch the Harper House with a big splash! This first show will remain for one month, and the gallery will be open from noon till 6 PM on Thursday, Friday and Saturday through April 19th. For future exhibits, local artists, including the children and youth of the community, will be invited to show their work. We envision at least two shows per year, in the fall and spring. The Harper House will also be available for reunions and meetings.
The Harper House is managed by Forest Grove Preserve, Inc., a nonprofit. The house was restored with funds granted by the Georgia Council for the Arts. Forest Grove Preserve’s mission is to make available to the people of middle Georgia the history, environment and art under its stewardship.
Put March 22 on your calendar and come on out Highway 242 just east of Ridge Road between 2 and 7 pm. Saucy Seafood will be on hand when you get hungry, selling seafood and other menu options. Another special treat - professional storyteller Jeanette Waddell from Hancock County will tell stories intermittently between the hours of 3 and 5. The show is free and all are welcome!
January 2024
Willie Mack and his team built an ADA ramp leading into the back door of the Harper House. They did a wonderful job! It fits in nicely! Thank you, Willie! The ramp was constructed at this time so that we could meet qualifications required by the GA Council for the Arts(GCA). This enabled us to apply for a GCA grant to fund the grand opening and first art show in the fall. Let's hope the proposal will be awarded!
September 2023
With great joy and gratitude, we want to announce that the Harper House restoration is completed! Funds received from kind donations and grants awarded by the Georgia Council for the Arts and the Georgia Civil War Commission enabled the final stages. Porches were completed, and the railings were fashioned from a sentimental Forest Grove cedar tree. Thank you so much to friends who contributed; every tax-deductible dollar went into this unique project. And thank you to the two grantors for having faith in us: The Georgia Council for the Arts and the Georgia Civil War Commission.
No one in the entire world would have attempted or could have completed this project, except the incomparable Jonathan Newsome and his team. Here they are folks, the outstanding Ohoopee Reclaimed, LLC team, who brought the Harper House back from dust. When they work they are all business with some quips and laughter thrown in. They worked from the dirt replacing sills, to the attic in >100-degree heat, always pleasant and considerate. Thank you, guys, for bringing this long-held dream to realization. It is beautiful! We love it!
From left to right: Patrick, Jonathon, Charleton, and Joel.
Coming to Forest Grove: the authentically restored Harper House to serve the arts, history, and the community
Forest Grove Preserve (FGP) is a young nonprofit (501(c)3), formed in 2022. FGP’s first grant was awarded by the Georgia Council of the Arts (GCA) to restore a 100-year-old sharecropper house and create within it a folk-art museum, a history lesson for children, and a meeting space. The Harper House is named for the last family who lived there in the 1950s-70s. It will provide an authentic historical destination and a charming, unique setting for an art gallery. The GCA grant has brought us near to completion, but we need your help in the final steps toward finishing the restoration! Please visit the link below to donate.
The Harper House
When the restoration project began, we discovered the east room of the two-room house dates to the pre-Civil War era. A hand-hewn mortise joint, square nails and a hand-forged hinge indicate that this original room was likely a slave cabin. The west room was added around 1900, and the structure was used as a sharecropper house for the next 80 years.
We feel there is a piece of Georgia history that is being lost. The era of slavery evolved into the era of sharecropping. The Harper House illustrates that evolution. Most of the unpainted frame houses where those farmers lived have gone to dust. After Emancipation, through Reconstruction, and into the 20th century they provided labor and were an essential part of society and the economy. Black mothers kept white neighbor children, their husbands tended the fields, and they all shared knowledge of plants and crafts. Quilts were made from feed sacks, soap from animal fat and lye, brooms from straw in the field, and baskets from split wood. The skills that produced household objects spilled over into the creation of art. People made meaningful and beautiful objects from free or inexpensive materials available to them.
Elderly descendants remember their grandparents' homesteads, but today’s children have little concept of that way of life. We hope to give an awareness to the present generation of this important heritage before it is forgotten. We want to tell the whole history of Forest Grove, including the plantation era, the Civil War and Reconstruction experiences, and the farming culture of the 100 years following.