Property History
The Foster-Thomason-Miller House was built on the foundation of the former Georgia Female College, which was established by an act of the Georgia legislature on January 17, 1850; the first chartered female academy in the state of Georgia. After many successful years during which the College served as an important cultural marker in Madison, the school closed in 1862 and remained closed until the end of the Civil War in 1865. After it reopened, the school never regained its prewar status, so when the building burned in 1880, the College was disbanded. In 1882 the school’s land was sold to Legare H. Foster, who immediately commenced to build the house, now known as the Foster-Thomason-Miller House, on the site. The exterior foundation of the house was laid directly on top of the foundation remains of the burned college building. An article in the December 1, 1883 issue of The Madisonian newspaper (see link to the full text below) describes Foster’s newly constructed house as “perhaps the most elegant country home in Middle Georgia.” Madison mechanic (master carpenter) Daniel Townes drew the plans and was contacted to construct the house which, according to The Madisonian, would “be one of the most beautiful and costly residences ever built in this city”. Townes’ “superior mechanical genius (would) for years be a monument to his skill and ingenuity.” The article goes on to describe various unique architectural details and interior appointments of the house including bay windows; frescoes by “the artistic brushes of Sheridan Brothers, Atlanta”; walnut and ash wainscoting; and solid walnut sliding doors.
In 1889, Robert Usher Thomason bought the house from L.H. Foster, hence the house’s present name. Based on historic photographs and documentation, the Thomasons updated the 1883 exterior color scheme (which corresponded to the original interior colors) during a repainting in 1905, and added indoor plumbing and electricity in 1916. Members of the Thomason family lived in the house until the late 1970s. In 1978 the house was sold to Richard and Marcia Miller, who undertook a meticulous restoration of the house--winning in 1986 the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s award for residential restoration, the only home in the city of Madison to achieve this status. The Millers then collected appropriately-styled furnishings to effectively recreate a Victorian era interior reflective of the Aesthetic movement.
The house suffered a fire in 2001 and would be a rewarding restorative project to whomever is its next fortunate owner.
The Georgia Female College
