716 West Trinity Place
Decatur, GA, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Mary Gay House

Statement of Significant:

The Mary Gay House, a c.1850, originally simple classical style frame structure, is significant historically and architecturally as one of a very few extant pre-Civil War, Decatur area buildings and also as the home of Miss Mary Gay, a noted local historian and author.

As an architectural example of a mid-19th century building, the Mary Gay House is outstanding especially for the interior details including the mantelpieces, locks and closet area described on the facing page. Early in the twentieth century, probably when the property was sold to a Johnston family about the time Miss Gay died in 1918, the house was renovated to face Marshall Street.

Miss Mary Ann Harris Gay, the occupant and owner of this house for over sixty years, is herself a significant figure in local history. Miss Gay, born in 1827, in Georgia, moved to Decatur with her mother and half-sister, in 1850 from Marietta. Her mother, Mary Stevens Stokes, is listed in the 1860 census as a seamstress and courthouse records indicate she owned five acres in Decatur; Mary Gay and her sister, Missouri Stokes, are listed as domestics.

Toward the turn of the century Mary Gay writes of Civil War times and is the author of four books, The Transplanted, Life in Dixie During the War, The Pastor's Story, and Prose and Poetry. In Life in Dixie During the War for which Joel Chandler Harris wrote the introduction, Miss Gay gives an eyewitness account of the war years in Decatur. She was 33 years old when the war began and although her book is highly sentimental, she recounts the ransacking and devastation of her house and surrounding areas, revealing much priceless local history. During this time, the main portion of the Union army camped in Decatur, with General Garrard's Calvary selecting the Gay acreage as their headquarters. In a short time, the men had demolished the barn and used the planks to make rough shelters for themselves. Here they remained until after the Confederate Army evacuated Atlanta after a six-week siege. According to Miss Gay's obituary in the Atlanta Journal, "during the Civil War Miss Gay was prominent in soldier welfare work and it was through her efforts that the Alexander H. Stevens Memorial Institute at Crawfordsville, Georgia, was founded. At the end of the Civil War, Miss Gay toured Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee in order to secure funds to rebuild the Baptist Church at Decatur which had been destroyed." During the war time she stored Confederate goods in her house, crossed through Union lines to carry messages to Confederates and secured food for many of the Decatur women and children after the Union army occupation of Decatur.

The Mary Gay House is a newly rediscovered landmark in Decatur. Presently the house is unoccupied and in potential danger of being removed from its presently original site or torn down; however, the local historical society has brought awareness to the house and its situation which will aide in the preservation of this mid-nineteenth century Decatur structure.