One of the most striking homes on the Newborn Tour of Homes is the Porter Manor House and Gardens, for several reasons. One, it’s one of the few three-story homes in town, Two, it was originally designed to be the dormitory for the Palmyra Institute and Three, it is going to be opening as a Bed and Breakfast soon! Oh, and also it was my Aunt Bertha’s house!
The Porters, who ran a store in downtown Newborn, owned it from the turn of the previous century. I have a store ledger inscribed J.G. and F.R. Porter, 1899-1900. Only the first two stories were lived in, as the W.R. Porters (Uncle Bill and Aunt Bertha) had a small family. The third story was, and still is, unfinished. When my dad, Charles Williams, was a child he used to sneak up there with his cousin Helen Porter (Conger) to see what Helen’s uncle Dr. Porter (who practiced later in Rutledge GA) had stored up there – a SKELETON! OK, it was a skeleton designed to teach anatomy but EEEEK! Can’t you imagine the thundering of kid’s feet as they ran back away from the spiderweb-covered bones three at a time!
Nowadays the home is getting lovelier by the moment, thanks to the exquisite taste of Susan Oliveto decorating the inside in a spare but inspiring Swedish/eclectic décor, and her husband Chris Dapkus’ horticultural design genius touch in the surrounding gardens. While you are there, don’t miss the handcrafted kitchen countertop – which was a stately black walnut tree in their yard several years ago until felled by the tornado of 2011.
