Hardman Farm Historic Site is located at the intersection of Hwys 75 and 17, two miles south of Helen. Parking is off Hwy 17.
Touring Hardman Farm Historic Site is like stepping back one hundred and fifty years in history. The story of the farm can best be told through the three men and their families who lived there.
The property is best known for the gazebo across the road that’s located on a mound in the middle of a cow pasture. The mound is a site of an ancient Indian burial ground and its history has been indelibly intertwined with Hardman Farms.
The land was first purchased by Dan Brown from the Indians in the area in the 1820s. He then sold it to Captain James Nichols in 1869.
The Nichols Family
Captain James Nichols was a businessman who served in the Governor’s House Guard in the Civil War. He was also at the Confederate surrender at Appomattox. He returned from the war suffering from malaria and found that his wife Kate had been raped by two Yankee soldiers. Possibly that experience caused her life-long battle with mental instability.
Captain Nichols worked until 1869, when he retired from his work to Gainesville, Georgia, for his health. While living in Gainesville, Nichols explored the area, coming across Nacoochee Valley in his travels.
Nichols and his wife emotionally struggled throughout most of their marriage. Their first son, Richard, died at the age of two months in 1857. Grief sent Kate into the mental hospital in Milledgeville for almost a year. Their second child was a girl named Anna Ruby. Their third child, another son Eugene, lived only a year and died in 1862. The strain of losing a second child was too much for Kate, and she spent the rest of her life being tended for mental instability.
Originally, the farm was located on the Unicoi Turnpike, a 200-mile road from Toccoa to western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. The road was originally a buffalo trail and then used by the Indians as a trading route. Nichols built the house to overlook the gazebo he built on the Indian mound.
After Nichols first visited Nacoochee Valley, he began buying up land there. Nichols eventually built a victorian mansion there was almost an exact replica of his home in Milledgeville. He named the place West End. This year, the Nacoochee house is 150 years old and is still mostly furnished with Nichols’ family possessions.
Nichols built numerous buildings on site, including the house, horse barn, carriage house, smokehouse, spring house, game house, and greenhouse.
He also built the gazebo atop the Indian mound. Hardman Farm docents tell the story that Nichols wanted a place for family picnics. He did lower the mound by two feet before building. In 1870, the same year Nichols built the house, he discovered Indian remains in the field and kept Indian artifacts in his home.
Eventually, Nichols owned 2,600 acres in the area, including Anna Ruby Falls, Unicoi State Park, and Nora Mill in Sautee. Legend says Nichols and his daughter Anna Ruby discovered the falls, but according to the U.S. Forest Service, that is incorrect. He did name the falls for his daughter.
Nichols brought innovations into the house that can still be seen today. He set up running water into the house with the pipes running under the floorboards. Every bedroom has a sink with hot and cold running water. The water was lukewarm at best and heated through a gas furnace. The house also had gas lighting throughout.
Another treasure Nichols built for the community was the Nacoochee Presbyterian Church, now the Crescent Hill Baptist Church, located just east of the Hardman Farm property on Hwy 17. The church can be entered today and visitors are able to see the original pulpit, pews, and stained glass windows.
The home was a summer home for the family, but Kate’s deteriorating mental health required hospitalization. In 1893, Nichols bartered the home with everything in it except for the linens, and 604 acres of his 2,600 acres with Calvin Welborn Hunnicutt. In the deal, Nichols received ownership of Hunnicutt’s Atlanta home where he lived for most of the rest of his life. Nichols returned to Nacoochee Valley in 1897, where he died shortly thereafter from a heart attack.
The Hunnicutt Family
Calvin Welborn Hunnicutt served in the Confederate army as well and returned from the war financial destitute. He started a plumbing company and, by 1889, The Atlanta Constitution estimated his net worth between $250,000 to $500,000, approximately $6 million today.
Hunnicutt purchased West End in 1893 and used it as a summer home for his family. Little is known about the family’s time there, except that they made few, if any, changes or additions to the place, including the decor or possessions within the house.
Hunnicutt sold the house to the third and final owner, Dr. Lamartine Griffin Hardman, a physician from Harmony Grove (today known as Commerce), Georgia, in 1903.
Hunnicutt served as a Fulton County Commission and is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. He died in 1915.
The Hardman Family
Dr. Lamartine Griffin Hardman was nationally known for his experimentation with anesthesia. He practiced in Harmony Grove and owned a drug store there as well. Hardman was also interested in 1900, Hardman had become one of the largest farmers in Georgia, and owned seven counties in Georgia and Florida. To help the economy in Harmony Grove, Hardman owned and operated a cotton mill, a roller mill, and a medical clinic. In 1903, he purchased West End from Calvin Welborn Hunnicutt and renamed it Elizabeth on the Chattahoochee for his mother.
Hardman was a confirmed bachelor until a Baptist minister introduced him to Emma Griffin. He was 45 at the time and she was 19. They courted for six years until Emma, tired of waiting, became engaged to another young man. When Hardman heard the news, he went to her and asked her to marry him. She agreed only if they married within the week. He agreed and they were married in 1907. He was 51 and she was 25. They raised four children together.
For Dr. Hardman, Elizabeth on the Chattahoochee was a place to continue his agricultural experiments. Evidence of that is found in the large dairy barn, the creamery, and the bull pen he built on the property. He also added electricity to the house, one of the first in the area to have it, and a telephone that connected him directly to Nora Mill which he had obtained in the original sale. Hardman renamed the granary for his sister, Nora. Nora Mills has been in operation continuously since 1876. The mill is nearby and the grinding stones are still in operation.
Medicine and agriculture were not enough for Dr. Hardman. He entered politics and served in the Georgia Legislature and the Georgia Senate. He later served two terms as Georgia’s Governor.
By the turn of the century, Hardman was considered to be one of the wealthiest men in north Georgia. He was also known as a conservationist. During Hardman’s ownership, the Smithsonian Museum conducted an archaeological excavation at the site. Most of the artifacts reside at the Smithsonian, while the excavated bones were returned to their original resting place.
Hardman was awarded three honorary doctorates from the University of Georgia in science, agriculture, and legal letters. His personal and political papers are archived at the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies on the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Georgia.
The family home and land remained in the Hardman family as a working farm until it was given to the state of Georgia in 1999. That process actually began in 1970 when Josephine Hardman Collins began working with The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation to have the farm designated as a historical building. The family remembers it as a magical place, one they wanted to share with the public.
Planning your visit
There is a fee for visiting the grounds and the house. Entrance fees are $12.00 for adults, $10.00 for seniors, $7.00 for youth, and $3.00 for children. These fees include a docent-guided tour of the house and part of the grounds. The cost for only wandering the grounds is half of that. All tours begin at the Visitor Center.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Hardman Farm Historic Site remains open seven days a week. However, as of Sunday, August 16th, guided tours will be given only on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 10 am until 4 pm. Docent tours leave every hour on the hour. The last tour begins at 3 p.m.
You’ll want time to enjoy the grounds and the gift shop so plan to spend several hours there. The site is open to handicapped visitors, but the staff encourages you to call in advance to let them know so they can make sure you have the best experience possible. Dogs are allowed on the grounds only. Social distancing was not a problem, and a few picnic tables are available on the grounds. Wearing masks is recommended while inside buildings.
