Even though we finally got a few days of sun here in the Atlanta area, it’s cold.
It’s freezing cold.
It…is…brutal....damn…cold.
I could blame my age for my aches and pains that seem to
like to scream in the worst possible ways during bitter cold weather, but in
the end I think it’s just my desire for warmer climates.
I just seem to be in a better mood at seventy degrees or
higher.
So, I’m looking forward to April and May…..
I’m so anxious for it I’m already planning a few places I
want to go and explore.
Places like Lockerby Hall in the Milledgeville area.
Lockerby Hall serves middle Georgia as a public garden
and educational resource with a pond and nature trails.
The site of the home was first used by Richard J. Nichols
as his home site in 1839. The home was the centerpiece of Nichol’s plantation,
Midway.
The home was known as Rose Hill then due to the roses
that covered the banks around the house. When Nichols died in 1849, Daniel R.
Tucker, pictured below, served as one of the appraisers for the estate.
Reginald R. Hatcher bought the property in 1928 and
renamed the home Lockerly Hall after an estate in Hampshire, England.
The next owner, Edward J. Grassman established the
Arboretum Foundation in 1965.
Today, hundreds of visitors including high school biology
students from Baldwin, Putnam and Hancock Counties visit the Arboretum to enjoy
the grounds, and later they get to tour a “haunted” house.
There are tales of the heavy wooden pocket doors slamming
shut by themselves, ashtrays hurling themselves across rooms and ghostly
figures of a man and a young girl have been seen…….mainly during periods of disruption
such as renovations.
Some think the apparitions are those of Daniel J. Tucker
and one of his daughters….
Yes, this is one destination that is going on my list!
