HOLLINGSWORTH – One of the oldest historic sites in the area soon will include an on-property heritage center.
Fort Hollingsworth-White House in Banks County, built in 1793, entertains and educates hundreds of visitors and students each year and previously hosted A Day at the Fort until that annual event outgrew the grounds.
Recently, ground was broken for the new building, which will be the only one on the grounds with climate control, and it also will contain public restrooms – something sorely needed on the grounds for years.
“We have been a nonprofit for many, many years and we have lots of visitors,” said Willette Mote. “A lot of them are students, so what we’re breaking ground for today is a classroom/heritage center. We have so much history on this place and in this area that we want to have a place to have it all in one place to have people come in and enjoy the things that we’ve collected over the years.”
The property’s main structure is built around the fort constructed in 1793. Connected by an open dog trot area is the farmhouse added in the 1860s.
“On the other side of the dog trot is the farmhouse that was added onto the fort in the 1860s by our great-grandfather and his wife, Joshua and Katherine Lane White,” Mote said. “They raised their family here and the Whites have lived here for three generations.”
Willette Mote said restrooms are a key part of the heritage center/classroom project.
“The first thing, we will have restrooms, and that’s one of the big things when we have events here, we have to go to an outdoor toilet,” Mote said. “We’ll have restrooms so we can be open in the summertime when it’s real hot and in the wintertime when it’s cold, because there’s no heat or no air here.”
Additionally, the new building will feature an assembly space for families, civic clubs and school groups.
“What it really means to us is we’ll be having a gathering place that we can gather year-round,” she said.
Scott Mote, representing the Joshua and Katherine Lane White Foundation, served as master of ceremonies for the pre-groundbreaking gathering on the grounds.
“Joshua and Katherine were my great-great-grandparents,” he said. “This foundation was established by the descendants of Joshua and Katherine Lane White as a means of promoting and perpetuating the continued preservation of this property that is known by most as Fort Hollingsworth, but to our family this is our ancestral home.”
In addition to the fort/home, the property also includes a two-room cabin, double pen crib, cotton house and privy, smokehouse, cabin and barn.
“What you see on the grounds around you is a prime example of how a homestead in the post-Antebellum period of the South would have been,” Scott Mote said. “What makes this property unique is while the dog-trot style architecture of the house is typical of that time period, it was in fact built around an existing structure that is estimated to have been built around 1793 – years before this area was part of the growing state of Georgia.”
There was a reason the home started as a fort.
“That structure was actually built as a precautionary defense for the early settlers along the border of the state of Georgia and the Cherokee Nation,” Scott Mote said. “Even though there is no historical evidence that the fort was ever actually put into use for that reason, it did stand as a testament encroaching white population that was beginning to move into northeast Georgia at that time.”
Willette Mote explained more about that pilgrimage to the area from North Carolina.
“After the Revolutionary War, a group of people from Turkey Cove, N.C., came down the Appalachian Mountains to start a new life on the western frontier,” Willette Mote said. “They settled on lands granted them by the State of Georgia. After they were settled, they found that they were across the boundary line in the Cherokee Nation, yet they were here, and it was not an option to go back.
“Since they were in the Cherokee Nation, they started to build this fort,” she said. “Along the line, there were about six forts that were built in the Cherokee Nation where they were able to live. When there was an uprising, they would come to the fort.”
Later, the White family ancestors added the house portion of the structure.
“Joshua and Katherine Lane White built around the fort and created the rest of the house because of practicality,” Scott Mote said. “They saw it as being half the house already standing. They simply added the rest to make a home.”
Two more generations of the White family also lived on the property.
“Their son, Lafayette White, moved into the home and raised his family there,” Scott Mote said. “And my grandfather, Beacher White, along with his wife Mellie Segars White moved into the home in 1936 and raised their eight kids here before their deaths in the late 1970s.”
Members of the White family and their descendants want to preserve the property for future generations to prevent its heritage and history from being lost to development.
“Places such as this are increasingly disappearing because land all across the state and the South in general as the past seems to matter less and less in today’s society,” said Scott Mote.
For almost a quarter century, Fort Hollingsworth-White House was known for A Day at the Fort, held annually on the Saturday before Memorial Day.
The facility’s signature event, A Day at the Fort, was held for 23 years.
“Of course, the past three years we haven’t been able to have it because, for one thing, it got too big,” Willette Mote said. “It got bigger than we could handle, and we didn’t have the facilities to accommodate the crowd.”
While sharing the history of the property with others is important, family members say preserving White family history also matters to them.
“Thousands of visitors have walked these grounds and the Georgia historical significance, but for us the family we have the stories and the memories handed down to us surrounding life on this farm,” said Scott Mote. “My generation was the last to have experiences of coming here for Sunday dinners with all the aunts and uncles, playing in the mudholes with cousins, spending the night with our grandparents. The tales and stories of our family still resonate in our hearts even today.”
Scott Mote said growing up visiting the Banks County property shaped his career path.
“One of the reasons I chose a career in history as an educator is because of the love developed early on because of this place,” Scott Mote said. “My mother, Willette White Mote, moved to Habersham Mills after marrying my father, but every Sunday we came here. To me, it was like stepping back in time. Here is where I learned about houses, storm cellars and root cellars, and the dangers of playing in old barns. Those memories inspire me still to make sure we never forget the simplicity and the hardships of our parents, grandparents and beyond in the things that they encountered as they raised their, very often, large families on this place.”
Even the primitive homestead property has to adapt to stay relevant and attract school groups, visitors and history buffs.
“The idea of this heritage center came about when we realized that we needed to provide something more advanced in order to continue to educate others about not only this homestead but this area as well,” Scott Mote said. “While we focus on the history of the fort, we also are aware that this place was occupied by others who were here long before the settlers migrated here from other parts of the new United States of America.”
But the White family has not forgotten those who occupied the land first.
“We want to honor those Native Americans who used this site for their home,” said Scott Mote. “The artifacts found on this property go back thousands of years and it would be a shame not to recognize that.”
Included on the National Register of Historic Places, Fort Hollingsworth-White House includes history of the property and area from the time before it was settled through a land grant.
“It is our hope that this heritage center will be just that, a place where heritage is remembered and celebrated,” Scott Mote said. “We also hope to share this facility with the surrounding community as a place to gather together as families, service organizations, and even church groups. With their support and yours, we hope our great-grandchildren will carry forth this little slice of history into the future.”
Willette Mote said her family has worked hard to make the new structure a reality.
“As we gather today to start the process of building this heritage center/classroom, it is a dream come true for me,” Willette Mote said. “My siblings and I have worked here since 1996 getting this property ready for everybody to enjoy.”
Ironically, the fort has been in several jurisdictions since its construction.
“Jacob Hollingsworth built this fort in 1793, and it’s the only one left of the chain of six forts,” Willette Mote said. “It has been in the Cherokee Nation, it’s been in Franklin County, it’s been in Habersham County, and now it’s in Banks County – but the fort hasn’t moved. The county line was moved.
“In 1804, it was worked out to add four miles to the State of Georgia,” she said. “It ran from Line Church down here to the top of Baldwin Mountain, and it was called the Four Mile Purchase. The fort was included in the treaty. The fort came into the White family through John Lane.”
Fort Hollingsworth-White House received the Stewardship Award from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation in 1999.
Friends of the Fort, a non-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c)3 organization, was established to manage and restore the property and is responsible for maintaining the grounds.
The property is open by appointment for tours and special events.
To learn more about the property, visit www.forthollingsworth-whitehouse.com or like it on Facebook.
