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WILLIAMSON / SPALDING COUNTY - When Kevin Gaissert was young, he lived at the Gaissert Home on the Pike and Spalding County line just down from the old Merrybrook Store. He came back to visit the old homeplace two years ago when the contents of the home were sold in a giant estate sale.

Kevin invited Pike County Times to hear his story while he was at the Gaissert Home. He brought his family to visit the old homeplace a few months later.

His kids got to swing on a metal swing set that is decades old. His family was able to see what remained of the Little House that he stayed in as a kid as well as seeing the Big House that he stayed in for a short while when he was a little older.

And he told his story about running on foot to race with the train that came by the house every day between 11 a.m. and 2 or 3 p.m.

History

The Gaissert Home is located just past the intersection of Moreland and Rover Zetalla Roads. Train tracks used to run parallel to the main road and come right up in front of a two story home with stately columns built in 1827 that was standing back from the roadway.

The Big House was by the road with a nicknamed Little House that was a Victorian cottage-type home sitting close by. There were two barns, box elders, magnolias, and other trees around the property as well as a couple of smaller structures with thick walls that were used for cold storage, drying out potatoes, and whatever else was needed in the old days before electricity.

Fields of cotton, then peach trees, and then a muscadine vineyard used to cover the original 640 acre farm. A cotton gin was there once upon a time too along with a large hen house.

For some of the structures on the property, pieces of the foundation still exist. Some are lost forever except in photographs.

Kevin first lived there in the late 1970’s and again in the early 1980’s. A lot had changed by then.

The old homeplace was down to about 90 acres or so. But the same train tracks that brought President Franklin Delano Roosevelt by the home to stop for lunch with Frank and Adolphe Gaissert or to pick up eggs and peaches on his trips to south Georgia almost 50 years prior to that time still existed and brought a train by the home each day.

Kevin’s visit to the Gaissert House in 2023 was bittersweet as his father, George Brooks Gaissert had just passed that spring. I followed Kevin around the homeplace to see the memories through his eyes as he told me about his childhood on the farm.

Living on the Farm

He lived in the Little House with his parents for a time in the late 1970’s. His Dad worked at Cronic Chevrolet.

He had fond memories of the Victorian Cottage that is pictured above. The foundation of the cottage is all that is left of that home today.

After a time, they moved away from the area. But when Kevin’s Papa, George Clark Gaissert, passed away in 1980, the family came back to the home to help his Grandmother.

“We stayed with Grandmother after Papa died,” he said. This time, they stayed in the Big House. He had fond memories of racing with the train on foot as it passed by the home during this childhood visit.

Kevin said that the gardens surrounding the home started going away after that. His Grandmother eventually moved to Texas with his family.

The home was sold sometime in the early 1980’s.

Past Articles and Photos

The Gaissert Homeplace was built in 1827 and was in the care of the Gaissert family for generations. After the passing of the last owner who had no heirs to inherit the property, the homeplace was sold to a developer that has presented plans to Spalding County to build a commercial site next to the property and has presented a demolition permit for the property that will be heard next month. [Note from the Editor: There is much more information about this at the end of the article including open records documents that can be read so readers can see details on this entire situation for themselves.]

Pike County Times has spent many hours at the Gaissert Homeplace over the past couple of years. This began with an invitation to visit and photograph the old homeplace before an estate sale was held in 2023 and included hours spent with family members looking through pictures and hearing their stories.

There is history in the 2023 article entitled “The Ending of an Era - Gaissert Home Contents to Be Sold in an Estate Sale and Home to Be Sold at a Later Date” that is not included in Kevin's article. Click here to read more history about this historic home: pikecountytimes.com/secondary/gaissert4.18.23.html.

Photographs of the items at the homeplace and many of the items that were sold at the Estate Sale can be viewed at: www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=becky.c.watts&set=a.10223348474445048

Earlier this year, the Gaissert Homeplace made the list of the state's 10 places in peril. Click here to read, “BREAKING NEWS: Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation Announces Its 2025 List of State’s 10 Places in Peril; Gaissert Homeplace in Williamson (Spalding County) Makes the List,” click here: www.pikecountytimes.com/secondary/BREAKINGNEWSgaisserthomeplace2.26.25.html.

Visiting the Farm

“I didn’t come back until May 9, 1993,” he said. His Grandmother had passed and the family brought her back her to be buried next to his Grandfather at Oak Hill Cemetery.

He and his sister, Blythe, visited the McCallums and saw where the tracks had been abandoned and were being pulled up.

It was a time to walk around and reminisce.

The next time that he saw the Gaissert Home was in 2004. He brought his fiancé Michelle (now his wife) to the farm. He said that his Dad talked to Mrs. McCallum to get permission for them to walk around the grounds and through the Big House.

He was happy to go into the Big House. There were a lot of changes that had been made like pulling up the indoor/outdoor carpet in the sitting room leaving the wooden floor exposed, but the old metal 1950’s cabinets were still there in the kitchen.

“It was like going back in time,” Kevin said.

He came back again about 20 years later when his sister got married.

The Little House had burned after a lightning strike caught the attic on fire. Maybe sometime in the early 2010’s. There was significant damage, and the home was later used for a fire exercise. All that is left is the concrete pad that the home sat upon.

Kevin told stories about hen houses that used to be around the place before he was born and said that there used to be an old cotton gin in the field. It quickly burned to the ground as a result of cinders from the passing train.

The trees around the Little House were not big like they are now, and the fence line had changed over the years.

The Little House

The Little House was a two bedroom Victorian Cottage built between 1900 and 1902. “Our bedroom was up front,” he said. There were three kids, but there was plenty of room. His parents had a room too.

There was a long hallway, a living room with a chimney, another big room in the back, and a kitchen and mudroom as well as bathroom with a claw foot tub. And there were French doors with glass panes and glass door knobs.

There was a back porch where you could see the cedar trees that are still there today. His Dad’s workshop was where there is now a foundation with rocks. And his Mom used to make fig preserves from the fig trees that are massive and still producing figs today.

Kevin bought the old railroad signs that used to be out by the property during the estate sale. The old Rover Railroad sign used to be on his Dad’s workshop.

He remembers a big garden by the Big House and many fruit trees including peaches, apples, a crab apple tree. It’s hard to find, he said of the crab apple tree, but he remembers the crab apple jelly by the smell.

There was a sandbox under the big pecan tree, he used to kick a football into the tree to knock down pecans, and he used to swing from a swing that hung in the pecan tree.

“I had a lot of good times here,” he said.

The Big House

At one time, there were grape vines, scuppernongs, raspberries, and black berries along the main drive to the house to the right hand side of the back of the house.

There used to be an entire row of fig trees by the house where only a few remain today. They ran parallel to the big garden. There were blueberries on the other side as well as peach orchard and a few apple trees.

There used to be both a big and little greenhouse with flowers all of the time and the potato house that was used to cool and dry potatoes and onions. He remembers the many colored zinnias and beans and silver corn in the big garden.

He told about a bad storm when lightning struck a couple of the trees around the swing set. He was a child when it happened but can remember that a bull a two cows were electrocuted and killed by the lightning that night. “It was so bad that night.” (One of those trees is pictured above.)

The main kitchen used to be disconnected from the house before one of the bedrooms was turned into a kitchen in the 1940’s or 1950’s. There was also an attic fan upstairs to pull the heat out of the house.

“There was so much grandeur to this place,” he said.

There used to be a screened in porch on the front of the house with a full second story. It was nice and cool, he said. At some point while his Great Grandfather George Columbus Gaissert owned the home, the floor rotted when wood was at a premium, and the second story porch was eliminated.

The magnolia trees were much smaller when he lived there, and there used to be both Cedar Evergreens and Hostas in abundance on the front lawn. Hollies, Geraniums, Petunias, Batchelor Buttons, and Daffodils used to line the front lawn as well.

The funeral train for President F.D. Roosevelt passed by the house on the tracks that are no longer visible to those who visit the house today.

His Grandparents, George Clark Gaissert and Mary Brooks Gaissert, owned Merrybrook Store across the road at the intersection for the stop light. The building is still there today though it has been unoccupied for years.

Kevin said that Daniel Orr and Civil and Revolutionary soldiers are buried in the trees somewhere on the back of the property too.

The Railroad

Kevin developed a love for trains because of his time at the Gaissert Home. That love began with his Papa, George Clark Gaissert.

Kevin remembered going to down to the switching yard in Griffin where he and his Papa would watch the switchman switch the trains. "The switch didn’t last long," he said, "but it lasted a lifetime for me!"

In 1980 when Kevin's Papa passed away, Kevin and his family came back to the Gaissert Home to help his Grandmother. Racing the train each day was a fond memory of that time during his childhood.

The train came by to go to Columbus every day between 11 a.m. to 2 or 3 p.m. Kevin would hear the train coming and run down to Randolph’s driveway. (Randolph lived in the yellow house and helped Kevin’s Grandfather with the chickens and eggs.)

Kevin would take off running in the same direction that the train was going and try to stay ahead of it. The train always caught up and passed him eventually, but he always ran as fast as he could.

"It was a fun thing for me," he said.

Many years later, after Kevin had grown up and moved away, his Dad told him that the train conductor stopped the train in front of the house one day and knocked on the door. The train conductor had stopped to ask whatever happened to the little boy who used to race the train every day.

“There were so many good times,” Kevin said, “so many good memories here.”

“I was only here for 4 ½ years, but you just feel like it’s home.”

A Plea to Save the Gaissert Homeplace

The Old Gassert Homeplace (Mary Brook Farm) was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The Gaissert Homeplace made Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation's List of State’s 10 Places in Peril in 2025. But these are not enough to save the old homeplace.

There were hopes a year ago that maybe someone from the family would be able to buy the homeplace and keep it in the family, but that did not happen. The property is now owned by a developer that has filed a permit to demolish the Gaissert Homeplace.

The public is being encouraged to attend a September 11th zoning appeal hearing and wear black to show their support of keeping the old homeplace.

The Griffin-Spalding Historical Society and the The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation have put out a plea on social media and established a website that has a notification reading as follows:

"Let Your Voices be Heard. Public Hearing: Proposed Rezoning and Possible Demolition of Gaissert Homeplace.

"There is an upcoming zoning appeal hearing (a demolition permit application has been submitted, but not yet approved) for the Gaissert Homeplace (also known as Mary Brook Farm), one of the oldest surviving residences in the Rover-Williamson-Spalding area and only one of a few homes on the National Register in our area.

Zoning Appeal Hearing:
• Thursday, September 11, 2025 – 6:00 PM
• Room 108, Courthouse Annex, 119 E. Solomon St., Griffin
• For more information or to provide input, call (770) 467-4220.

Community members and stakeholders are invited to attend the public hearing and make their voices heard on this matter.

Historical Overview:
• Built in 1827 by the Orr family as a four-room, central hall, plain-style country house.
• c. 1852: Rear additions and a stone kitchen (later stuccoed) added by Henry Williamson.
• c. 1910: George Columbus Gaissert added the two-story, four-column Ionic portico and porte-cochere.
• Associated with the Orr, Blanton, Williamson, and Gaissert families, with ties to historic transportation routes including the Plank Road and Georgia Midland Gulf Railway."

Click here to see pictures and read more about the history at the "Save Gaissert Homeplace (Mary Brook Farm)" page courtesy of the Griffin-Spalding Historical Society: www.griffinhistory.com/post/save-gaissert-homeplace-mary-brook-farm

Statement from McLeRoy Rentals LLC

Pike County Times contacted McLeRoy Rentals LLC and asked if there was a statement that they would like to include in this article. The statement is included below.

• The home is not to be included as part of the requested commercial rezoning use. The home will stay in its current AR zoning.
• The home is available for rent, $2,500/month (includes an acre and no other building use.) Please call our office at 770.567.3514 to apply.
• We have filed a demolition permit to preserve our property rights as a response to a proposed Historic Preservation Ordinance from the Spalding County Community Development Office.
• Our intentions are to preserve the home and put a convenience store on the corner of the property as presented by Kirk Fjelstul in the Spalding County Planning Commission meetings and Spalding County Board of Commissioners meetings.

For more information and to view open records that have been uploaded to Pike County Times for readers, please continue reading below.

Open Records Documents

According to the Spalding County Planning Commission Minutes dated June 25, 2024, the original rezoning request from AR-1 to C-1 for the 32.9 acre proposal for “Highway Commercial for a proposed convenience store, restaurants, and future office retail space” was denied unanimously. Click here to read these minutes: http://pikecountytimes.com/secondary/gaissert.spalding.minutes.6.25.24.pdf.

However, the plat was resubmitted on a smaller scale with a 12.5 acre plat. According to the Spalding County Planning Commission Minutes from June 24, 2025, McLeRoy Rentals, LLC, requested a rezoning for approximately 12.5 combined acres “for a proposed convenience store with fuel service and future office / retail spaces” with Attorney Kirk R. Fjelstul from the firm of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP reiterating that “the historical home is not included in this application.” The motion was denied in a 2-1 vote. Click here to read these minutes: http://pikecountytimes.com/secondary/gaissert.spalding.minutes.6.24.25.pdf.

According to the Appeal of Decision of Administrative Officer to the Board of Appeals filed on July 2, 2025, McLeRoy Rentals, LLC has filed an appeal of Spalding County’s refusal to issue a demolition permit to remove the historical house on June 3, 2025 and is also appealing the refusal to issue a recombination plat of the properties on June 2, 2025 to the Board of Appeals through the help of Kirk R. Fjelstul from the firm of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP out of Atlanta.

There is also a “Historic Property Preservation Ordinance” that includes properties in the county that are on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Gaissert Homeplace, that McLeRoy Rentals, LLC stated would stop the proposed rezoning of its property by applying restrictions for dividing historic property that would harm its interests. There is a lot packed in 15 pages that can be read at: http://pikecountytimes.com/secondary/gaissert.spalding.appeal.7.2.25.pdf.

Click here to read through McLeRoy’s Exhibits: http://pikecountytimes.com/secondary/gaissert.spalding.exhibits.7.2.25.pdf.

Closing

The public is invited to attend the Spalding County Zoning Appeal Hearing that will be held on
• Thursday, September 11, 2025 – 6:00 PM
• Room 108, Courthouse Annex, 119 E. Solomon St., Griffin

For more information or to provide input on this hearing, call (770) 467-4220.